Kotak Mahindra Bank founders sell 3.2 pct stake

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd's founder group sold a 3.24 percent stake in the bank, worth about $364 million, to comply with the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines on equity holding in local banks.

The shares were bought by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages Canada's national pension fund in stock market transactions, said Paul Parambi, head of group Strategy at Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Canada Pension currently owns 1.4 percent of the Indian bank's equity.

Over 25 million shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank changed hands on the Bombay Stock Exchange in three block deals, at an average price of 880 rupees a share, Reuters data shows. The bank's shares were trading up 0.3 percent at 864.70 rupees at Friday noon.

 

Kotak had on Tuesday said it has received a communication from the Reserve Bank of India to bring down promoter shareholding to 40 percent from 43.58 percent by Sept. 30.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi, Indulal PM and Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Sunil Nair)