ING sells Kotak Mahindra Bank shares worth Rs 1,440cr through open market transaction

New Delhi: Dutch financial major ING on Thursday sold 1.27 crore shares in Kotak Mahindra Bank for a little over Rs 1,440 crore through an open market transaction. ING Mauritius Investments, the investment arm of the Dutch bank, held 3.73 percent, or over 7.11 crore shares in the private lender at the end of September, data available with the stock exchanges showed. [caption id=“attachment_3890333” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to bulk deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ING off-loaded a total of 1,27,45,702 stocks of Kotak Mahindra Bank. The shares were sold on an average price of Rs 1,130, valuing the transaction at Rs 1,440.26 crore, the data showed. The government of Singapore will pick up over 95.57 lakh shares of the bank for Rs 1,080 crore. Market sources said that the USD 900 million penalty payment is hitting ING’s financial in December quarter and the company needs cash to offset this outflow. Earlier in 2016, ING had off-loaded 2.5 percent stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank for an estimated Rs 3,653 crore. Kotak Mahindra Bank shares settled at Rs 1,161.15 on the NSE on Thursday, up 2.77 percent from the previous close.