US-based hedge fund Galleon has sold its entire holdings in leading investment banking and broking firm Edelweiss Capital through the open market route on Friday. The fund sold its 7% stake for Rs 256 crore through two bulk deals transacted on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on the day.
Galleon’s exit from the financial services company is part of winding down of its funds, after its founder Raj Rajaratnam and five others have been charged with insider trading in the stocks of companies, including Google and Hilton Hotels. The hedge fund sold a total of 52.7 lakh shares which were bought by three entities — Privatebank IHAG Zurich, Reliance Mutual Fund and Edelweiss’ Employee Welfare Trust. The Edelweiss share price rose 0.9% to Rs 485.3 on Friday, while the deals were transacted at Rs 485.
With this sale, the stake of the Edelweiss promoters would go up by about 3%, from the current 38% of the equity capital. Edelweiss Capital is promoted by investment banker Rashesh Shah who has personal holding of nearly 17.4% in the company. Recently, Galleon sold stake in another company Shriram EPC.
The fund sold 9.5 lakh shares at Rs 223 each to Indea Long Term Opportunities Master Fund, reducing its stake from 4.6% to 2.4% in the engineering company. Galleon is also believed to be holding some stake in Pipavav Shipyards, a ship building company that was listed in October.
Source: Economic Times