TCI sold nearly 19 pct of its Coal India stake: source

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), a UK-based investor that has a lawsuit pending against Coal India, has sold nearly 19 percent of its shareholding in the company since April, a Coal India source said.

TCI, which held 1.1 percent of the equity in the state miner as of March 31, making it the second-biggest public shareholder in the firm after Life Insurance Corp of India, has sold nearly 12 million shares, or nearly a fifth of its holding, since April.

The government of India owns 90 percent of Coal India.

"They have been selling regularly since April. The holding stands at 0.81 percent now," the company source told Reuters.

TCI head Chris Hohn declined to comment. "We never comment on our trading," he said in an email to Reuters.

TCI has made public protests since the Indian government last year forced Coal India to reverse a price hike. It filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court and a lawsuit in the Kolkata high court against Coal India's directors.

The Kolkata lawsuit also names the federal government as a party, saying it abused its powers as majority shareholder in Coal India. (Reporting by Prashant Mehra, Himank Sharma and Manoj Rawal; Editing by Tony Munroe)