BlackRock, three others buy $1.4 billion of Bandhan Bank shares

BlackRock Inc. and Singapore’s GIC Pte. bought shares in Bandhan Bank Ltd. as the main shareholder of India’s most profitable bank sold Rs 106 billion ($1.4 billion) of its stake to meet the regulator’s ownership rules.

Temasek Holdings Pte and SBI Mutual Fund also bought shares, the bank’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said in an interview on Monday. GIC got the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to raise its stake in the lender to 10 per cent from 4.9 per cent, he said.

Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd. sold 337.4 million shares in the Indian lender at