Kotak trades Hutch stakes for Rs 1019 crore

Even after the deal, Ruia's Essar remanins the single largest shareholder with its 33 per cent stake in the Essar.

Private Bank Kotak Mahindra on Wednesday sold its 8.33 per cent stake in cellular telephony major Hutchison Essar for Rs 1019 crore to Analjit Singh and Telecom Investments India.

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Even after the deal, Ruia's Essar remains the single largest shareholder with its 33 per cent stake in the Hutchison Essar that has a subscriber base of over 1.1 crore.

The move comes days ahead of the Government deadline on March 3 to mobile companies to comply with the 74 per cent foreign direct investment guideline.

According to a communication of Kotak Mahindra Bank to the stock exchanges, "the sale consideration is on the basis of an underlying value of about $6 billion for Hutchsion Essar Ltd, including debt and preference share liabilities in the companies which hold shares of HEL".

Essar has 33 per cent and Hutchison Whampoa 26.5 per cent, Egyptian major Orascom 10 per cent, Hinduja group has 5.1 per cent and public shareholding in Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd has 16.4 per cent.

Hutchsion owns 49 per cent in HTIL.

Analjit Singh was the original founder of Hutchison Max Telecom. He exited the company last year by selling the remaining 3.16 per cent stake in the company to Essar group for Rs 657 crore.