Foreign investors up stake in Srei Intl

Citi, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Investitions collectively pick up around 11%.

Foreign investors, including three new entities, have enhanced their stake in infrastructure finance company, Srei International Finance Ltd (SIFL), by as much as 8 per cent in the last two months.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) such as Citi Corp Global, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Investitions have collectively picked up around 11 per cent in the company during the same period.

Citi Corp Global has picked up around 5 per cent, while Morgan Stanley has bought another 2 per cent. Deutsche Investitions has picked up another 4 per cent in SIFL.

Total FII holding in SIFL has increased from 16 per cent in December 2004 to 24 per cent by February 2005 and the company has decided to enhance the cap on foreign holding to 74 per cent.

Sources close to the development said that International Finance Corporation (IFC), which held around 9.18 per cent in September 2004, does not figure in the list of FIIs holding more than one per cent in the company.

Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, on the other hand, which held around 4.69 per cent in December has now enhanced its stake to 5.5 per cent, while FMO of Netherlands has also reduced its holding in SIFL from 6.18 per cent in December 2004 to 1.5 per cent in February 2005.

Dreyfus Founders a US based fund on the other hand has also enhanced its stake from 1.43 per cent in December 2004 to 3 per cent in the same period.

DEG's holding however has remained the same at 3.53 per cent. In a parallel development the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on February 11, 2005, have decided to issue further securities of the company in domestic and international markets up to an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 500 crore or equivalent thereof in any foreign currency.

It has also decided to issue further securities (inclusive of above) for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 5000 crore or, in case of international offerings, equivalent thereof in any foreign currency, either by way of domestic issue, private placement, international offerings.

It will also re-classify the authorised share capital of the company by converting and classifying 150 lakh preference shares of Rs 200 each into 30 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each and by converting and classifying the balance preference shares into 3 crore preference shares of Rs 100 each.