SBI sells 7 lakh shares of UB Group's MCFL for Rs 4 cr

State Bank of India (SBI) today sold UB group's over seven lakh shares in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (MCFL) worth nearly Rs 4 crore.

Recently, lenders of Vijay Mallya-led group's Kingfisher Airlines have begun selling group firm shares pledged with them to recover their loans amid huge accumulated losses and soaring debt levels of the airline that is grounded since October 2012.

The shares were pledged as security for loans taken by Kingfisher Airlines.

According to information available with the stock exchanges, SBI today sold 7,07,729 shares of MCFL through open market transaction.

The shares were offloaded on an average price of Rs 55.02 valuing the transaction at Rs 3.89 crore, the data showed.

As on March quarter, SBICap Securities, an SBI group entity, held one crore shares, accounting to 8.44 per cent stake, of MCFL.

Earlier in April, SBICap Trustee Company, an SBI group entity, had sold one crore shares of MCFL, accounting for over 8 per cent stake, for Rs 38.5 crore. These shares mostly included those pledged by UB group with its various lenders and their consortium was led by SBI.

In the same month, SBICap Trustee Company had offloaded more than 85 lakh shares of cash-starved Kingfisher Airlines in a transaction worth nearly Rs 7 crore.

Shares of MCFL today fell by 1.46 per cent to close at Rs 54.10 apiece on the BSE.