The government has sold nearly one crore shares of Axis Bank worth Rs 600 crore in the past two weeks held through the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
According to the exchange filing, SUUTI has sold 61.43 lakh shares of Axis Bank Ltd. for Rs 374.21 crore between December 2- 4 and 36.25 lakh shares worth Rs 221.47 crore between November 26- 27. With these recent transactions, SUUTI’s shareholding in the private sector lender remained only 3.92 per cent, which was 4.33 per cent as of September 30.
SUUTI has minority shareholdings in several listed and unlisted companies, with most of its value locked in Axis Bank with 11.53 per cent stake, ITC Ltd. with 7.93 per cent stake and 1.8 per cent stake in Larsen & Toubro (L&T). It has reduced its minority stakes in Axis Bank and hotels-to-personal care conglomerate ITC and sold off most of its stake L&T Limited.
For FY21, the central government has set up a disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 trillion which includes the privatization of debt-laden carrier Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL). The government is yet to carry out strategic disinvestments this fiscal. So far, it has received Rs 6,734 crore through minority stake sales in Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd.