Institutional interest in the Thrissur-based South Indian Bank (SIB), which does not have either a domestic or a foreign promoter, is on the rise and the latest to pick up stake in the bank are International Finance Corporation (IFC), Washington and Morgan Stanley through its arm Morgan Stanley Mauritius Ltd. Others including Swiss Financial Corporation had also picked up stake in one of the old generation private sector banks in the country. The total institutional holdings in the bank stood at 57.57% by the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal up from 45.81% during the previous quarter. According to data available with FE, IFC, World Bank's industrial financing body, had picked up 2.99% stake in SIB during the third quarter of the current financial year. Morgan Stanley, similarly had mopped up 2.77% of the SIB's floating stock. Both the institutions had purportedly mopped up the stock of the bank from open market. Similarly, Swiss Finance Corporation had picked up close to 2% stake in SIB. Other institutions which had picked up stake in the bank during the last quarter include FD Funds Mauritius which picked 2.77% in the Thrissur-based bank and UTI which had mopped up 2.71% stake. […]

Billionaire investor George Soros bought a stake worth $100 million in Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Entertainment Pvt. Soros bought a 3 percent stake of the privately owned company, Sharad Goel, spokesman for Reliance Entertainment, said in New Delhi today. The stake sale values Reliance Entertainment, which runs the Big 92.7FM radio stations and social networking and gaming Web sites in India, at $3.33 billion. Reliance Entertainment may sell shares in an initial public offering, the Hindustan Times reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information. A prospectus detailing the share sale for the stock market regulator is being prepared, the report said. (Bloomberg) […]