Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 8): Khazanah Nasional Bhd has sold another 5.18% stake in India's IDFC Ltd, just days after selling smaller chunk of shares in the financial services holding company.

According to Indian website VCCircle today, Khazanah has sold more than 8.26 million shares in IDFC at 38.76 rupees apiece, netting it 320.37 crore rupees (about US$43.66 million).

The portal calculated that Khazanah has thus far pared down its stake to 2.12%, from 7.3% previously. This is after selling shares worth an approximate US$19 million just last month.

IDFC houses asset management and project finance businesses and is a large shareholder of IDFC First Bank.

Notably, Khazanah originally acquired a 8.97% stake in IDFC back in 2007 for 848.16 crore rupees, or about US$210 million then. After three years, it raised its total exposure to the company to 1,228 crore rupees. Its total exposure is believed to be close to US$300 million, said the report.

VCCircle said IDFC Bank was demerged from IDFC Ltd in 2015 and this gave Khazanah and other shareholders of IDFC a stake in the private-sector bank.

Later in 2016, Khazanah sold its entire stake in IDFC First Bank for about 1,050-1,100 crore rupees (about US$160 million) at the time.

Apart from the disposal of its shareholding in IDFC, Khazanah last year sold its stake in data analytics firm Fractal Analytics Inc to private equity firm Apax Partners.

The sovereign fund also sold its stake in India's top hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals, to IHH Healthcare Bhd. The latter then disposed of its Apollo shares in 2017.

In the financial services sector, Khazanah previously exited L&T Finance in 2015, reported the portal.

Shares of IDFC Ltd ended trading on Thursday up 12.42% at 43 rupees apiece, near its 52-week high of 45.7 rupees.

Interestingly, three other investors picked up shares of IDFC at nearly the same price that Khazanah sold at. Hedge fund Abakkus, Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore Pte, and the Avendus Absolute Return Fund picked up shares worth 38.75 crore rupees, 51.15 crore rupees, and 58 crore rupees respectively, according to the report.

Edited ByLam Jian Wyn
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