Bandhan Bank promoter reduces stake to 40 pc; sells shares worth over Rs 10,550 cr

Transaction, the shareholding of NOFHC in the bank has been reduced to 40 per cent of the total paid-up voting capital of the bank which is in compliance with aforesaid guidelines and the licensing conditions of the bank," the filing said. Bandhan Bank MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh told PTI that the shares were sold at an average price of Rs 313.35 apiece and the investors include GIC Singapore, Temasek and BlackRock.

Bandhan Bank's holding company BFHL on Monday sold 20.95 per cent stake worth over Rs 10,550 crore as part of complying with regulatory requirements. Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd (BFHL) has offloaded more than 33.73 crore shares in the secondary market.

BFHL -- the Non-Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) of the lender -- was required to reduce its excess shareholding to 40 per cent of the paid-up voting capital of the bank. "In order to be fully compliant with the Licensing Guidelines, the NOFHC has today i.e. August 3, 2020 informed the bank that it has diluted its excess shareholding of 20.95 per cent i.e. 33,73,67,189 equity shares of Rs 10 each fully paid-up in the bank through secondary market sale," the bank said in a filing to the stock exchanges. "Consequent to the... transaction, the shareholding of NOFHC in the bank has been reduced to 40 per cent of the total paid-up voting capital of the bank which is in compliance with aforesaid guidelines and the licensing conditions of the bank," the filing said.

Bandhan Bank MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh told PTI that the shares were sold at an average price of Rs 313.35 apiece and the investors include GIC Singapore, Temasek and BlackRock. On the basis of the average price, the stake sale would be worth a little over Rs 10,571 crore.

Following the amalgamation of GRUH Finance Ltd with the bank effective from October 17, 2019 and issuance of fresh equity shares to shareholders of GRUH on October 21, 2019, BFHL's shareholding in the bank had come down from 82.26 per cent to 60.96 per cent. With Monday's transaction, promoter entity BFHL's stake has come down to 40 per cent.

BFHL has been exploring options to bring down the stake to the prescribed 40 per cent limit to meet the regulator's guidelines, the lender had said in its latest annual report Bandhan Bank had commenced operations as a universal bank in August 2015. Last October, the Reserve Bank of India had imposed a monetary fine of Rs 1 crore on the bank for failure to bring down the holding company's stake to the prescribed level within a stipulated time frame. Bandhan Financial Services Ltd (BFSL) is the parent of BFHL. Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) holds about 8 per cent in BFSL. Other investors in BFSL include International Finance Corporation, FIG Investment Company and Caladium Investment Pte (affiliate of Singapore's GIC).

On Monday, shares of the bank slumped more than 10 per cent to close at Rs 308.65 on BSE.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)