Ashok Leyland sells shares in Indus Ind Bank

In two days the company sold shares worth Rs 122 crore

Ashok Leyland on Wednesday sold shares worth Rs 47.61 crore in IndusInd Bank. According to BSE bulk data the commercial vehicle major sold 11,50,000 shares at a price of Rs 414 a share. The buyer was CPCI Mauritius Ltd, which also bought shares worth Rs 75.55 crore from IDL Speciality Chemicals Ltd, a pharma firm which was acquired by Hinduja Ventures in 2010.

On Tuesday, Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland sold 18,00,000 equity shares in IndusInd Bank worth around Rs 75 crore, the shares were acquired by CPCI Mauritius for the same amount.

According to the details in the exchange, Ashok Leyland has sold 18,00,000 equity shares for Rs 417 per share. As per the shareholding pattern as on September 30, 2013, Ashok Leyland has 1,30,13,923 equity shares in IndusInd Bank, which is around 2.48 per cent of the total share of the Bank.

In March this year,  Ashok Leyland had offloaded 50 lakh shares of IndusInd Bank in a transaction worth more than Rs 216 crore. This was part of the company's announced plans to partially or wholly divest its stakes in various institutions, including IndusInd Bank, which would help the company to reduce its debt and focus on the core business.

The shares were bought by Afrin Dia, a foreign institutional investor, again based in Mauritius based FII Afrin Dia, who had 79 lakh shares or 1.51 per cent stake in the bank, as on December 31, 2012.

As reported earlier, total shares held by Ashok Leyland as on December 31, 2012 were worth around Rs 700 crore. IndusInd Bank Limited is a Mumbai based India new generation bank, established in 1994.

It had also revealed plans earlier to dilute shares in other companies, including Hinduja Leyland Finance (HFL), Defiance Technologies and Defiance Testing. Of this, it has sold the Detroit-based testing and engineering company Defiance Testing & Engineering Services (DTE) to testing, calibration and advisory service provider Exova, which has operations in US, Europe and other parts.

Earlier the commercial arm of Hinduja Group, Ashok Leyland has diluted its stake in IBL and in ICICI and booked a profit of around Rs 75-76 crore during the current fiscal.