FTIL sells 4% more MCX stake, now holds 20%

MCX's erstwhile promoter Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) on Wednesday offloaded a 4 per cent stake in MCX for about Rs 154 crore, bringing down its shareholding to 20 per cent. FTIL has sold a total of 20,40,901 shares, amounting to 4 per cent stake in the commodity bourse, through open market route, as per data available with the stock exchanges. 

The shares were sold on average price of Rs 752.83 apiece valuing the transaction at Rs 153.64 crore. The identity of buyer(s) of the shares could not be ascertained immediately.

These transactions took place at a time when parleys are being held on for sale of 24 percent stake by Jignesh Shah-promoted FTIL in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and the interested bidders include Kotak Group and Reliance Capital. However, the stake sale had earlier hit a roadblock after bidders claimed that they have not given access to 'special audits' of MCX.

With this stake sale, FTIL's holding in MCX has come down to 20 per cent. FTIL said that the equity shares representing 20 per cent of the post-offer equity share capital of MCX held by it is locked in as promoters' contribution till March 2015 in terms of ICDR Regulations.

Last week, FTIL had sold nearly two per cent stake in MCX. The shares were purchased by ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. Prior to that, FTIL had 26 per cent holding in the commodity bourse.

In December, commodity markets regulator FMC had declared FTIL as unfit to run any exchange after a Rs 5,600 crore payment crisis at group company National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL). The regulator asked FTIL to reduce its stake in MCX to 2 per cent from 26 per cent.

The MCX counter was down by 2.5 per cent at Rs 749.75 on the BSE, whose main index jumped 321 points on Wednesday while the FTIL counter was up 10 percent at Rs 286.05.