Bank of New York, FIIs buy 18.5% in LIC Housing

Bank of New York (BNY) along with six FIIs have acquired a total of 18.5 per cent in LIC Housing Finance following its BoD's decision to allow them to hold 49 per cent.

Total FII holding in the company has in fact increased from 12.23 per cent to 25 per cent till December 2004 while BNY has acquired as much as 5.04 per cent recently - the largest among the FIIs.

The BoD of the company took a decision to allow FIIs to hold 49 per cent in the company in September following which there has been an increase in stakes from these foreign institutions.

Merrill Lynch Capital Market, on the other hand, which held as much as 8 per cent in September, has offloaded the bulk of its holding at 6.75 per cent in the open market in the same period and now holds close to 1.25 per cent.

Nevertheless, FIIs like Vontobel Fund Far East Equity, Kuroto Fund LP, Goldman Sachs Investment Mauritius, India Capital Fund Ltd , T Rowe Price International Inc Em,

T Rowe Price International Funds has picked up stakes larger than one per cent in the company.

According to latest available data Vontobel Fund Far East Equity has picked up 2.01 per cent, Kuroto Fund LP 1.96 per cent, Goldman Sachs Investment Mauritius at 1.89 per cent, India Capital Fund Ltd 1.71 per cent, T Rowe Price International Inc Em 1.57 per cent and T Rowe Price International Funds another 1.37 in LIC Housing in the last four months.

The total stake held by seven FIIs stand at 15.55 per cent.

Meanwhile, the total stake held financial institutions in December 2004 stood at 48.07 per cent against 34.8 per cent in the previous quarter.

Among other FIs Templeton Mutual Fund now holds 8.25 per cent while Birla Sun Life Trustee Company hold another 3.04 per cent followed by Nit Trust of India -DRF at 1.92 per cent till December 2004.

Financial institutions such as UTI which held 3.3 per cent, while India Capital Fund Ltd 1.05 per cent now does not figure in the list of companies holding more than one per cent in LIC Housing.

LIC Housing had sometime back decided to offer FIIs stakes in the company on a private placement basis, through a $50 million offer.