Core Education admits to pledge shares sale; gains 19%

Moneycontrol Bureau

IT education firm Core Education today clarified that it was indeed the sale of shares pledged by the promoters that saw the stock tumble from a high of Rs 300 to a low of Rs 49.5, within four trading sessions.

Earlier the company had denied any knowledge of sale of pledged shares. "We would like to clarify that, based on our discussions with all the lenders, none of the shares pledged with financial institutions have been sold," Maya Sinha, executive director, Core Education and Technologies told a leading daily.

According to the data furnished by the company to the BSE today, four entities had sold a total of 44.55 lakh shares pledged by the promoters due to margin calls. Of this, the single largest seller was IFCI Financial Services that had on February 27 sold 36.95 lakh shares pledged with it. On February 25, three other institutions had sold Core Education shares.

While Pinkhem Investment Company had sold 4 lakh shares, Gateway Leasing Private offloaded 1.40 lakh shares and Prabhudas Lilladher Financial Services offloaded 2.20 lakh shares.

The other major seller was Cresta Fund, Mauritius, which had held 55,14,689 shares constituting 5.3084 per cent of the equity. On February 25, the fund sold 28,16,123 shares forming 2.9512 per cent of the equity. After the sell-off, its holding declined to 2.3572 per cent of the equity with 26,98,566 shares.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Core has seen such a dramatic fall in its share price. In 2008, its share fell 76 percent in just two trading sessions in October 2008.

At 15:35 hrs CORE Education & Technologies was quoting at Rs 65.15, up Rs 10.30, or 18.78 percent.