L&T slips 3% as govt sells 1.6% of SUUTI holding

Shares of Larsen and Toubro slipped over 3 percent intraday Friday on government stake sale. According to divestment secretary, the government has sold 1.63 percent of Specified Undertaking of the United Trust of India (SUUTI) holding. It is learnt that the stake sale via offer for sale (OFS) fetched around Rs 2100 crore to the government’s exchequer. The stake sale’s minimum ticket size was 1.5 percent. The divestment secretary said that the sale was mainly absorbed by market as institutional headroom was very limited.  In conversation with CNBC-TV18, Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Divestment Secretary, said domestic and foreign institutes participated in L&T stake sale.The SUUTI was formed back in 2003 as an extension of the UTI. It consists of 51 companies-8 unlisted and the rest 43 listed. Through SUUTI, the government holds minority stake in these companies and is planning to divest its shareholding.Citibank, Morgan Stanley and ICICI Securities are handling the divestment in the SUUTI stake sale.

Through SUUTI the government holds 11.53 percent stake in Axis Bank, 11.17 percent in ITC and 8.16 percent in L&T. For the purpose of divestment, the government had segregated the companies in the SUUTI portfolio in to 3 groups.These blue chip companies were placed in Group A and are up for divestment. At 12:38 hrs Larsen and Toubro was quoting at Rs 1,422.90, down Rs 21.65, or 1.50 percent on the BSE.Posted by Nasrin SultanaFollow @NasrinzStory