Canadian pension fund buys 3.24% in Kotak Bank for Rs 2,200 cr

Within days of it being told to cut promoter holding, private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank today said a promoter group entity has sold 3.24 per cent stake to a Canadian pension fund for Rs 2,200 crore.
The shares were offloaded through bulk deal at a 1.4 per cent premium over today's closing price of Rs 867.55 .
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board picked up 2.5 crore shares or 3.24 per cent stake at Rs 880 per share.
"It was a bulk deal which happened on the exchanges. We have been told that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has picked up 25 million shares in the bank...We are very pleased at this," the bank's head of group strategy Paul Parambi told PTI.

The stake sale by Kotak Trustee Company reduces the promoter shareholding to 40.33 per cent, which is slightly above the 40 per cent mark recommended by RBI to be achieved by September this year.
"The present sale by the promoters helps us substantially meet the RBI requirement for promoter dilution by September 30, 2014," Parambi said.
The announcement comes three days after the lender said it has been asked by the sector regulator Reserve Bank of India to cut promoter shareholding to 40 per cent by September and to 30 per cent by December.
RBI wants promoters in private sector banks to scale down their holding to 10 per cent in order to have a diverse ownership base at lenders. Each bank has submitted a plan under which it will be bringing down the shareholding.