PE investor for Redington

A private equity arm of Standard Chartered today bought close to 10 per cent of Redington India from its promoter and another key investor for a sum of over Rs 365 crore. These shares were acquired from Redington Mauritius, classified as the company’s promoter with the stock exchanges and Taiwan-based Synnex Technology International Corp, a strategic investor in the IT and technology logistics provider. The transaction was done through the bulk deal window of the Bombay Stock Exchange today. Standard Chartered Private Equity, Mauritius bought 3,97,36,500 shares of Redington India for a price of Rs 91.89 per share. Another institutional investor, ECL Finance, acquired 79,50,000 shares at Rs 91.90. The sellers were Redington Mauritius, which offloaded 3,04,80,673 shares, and Synnex Mauritius that sold 1,58,95,000 shares. In all, close to 12 per cent of Redington’s equity changed hands. The purchase price marks a premium of nearly 4 per cent to the closing price of the Redington scrip at the bourses on Friday. Despite the transactions, the Redington stock fell 0.39 per cent to Rs 88.50 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shareholding data for the period ended March 31 showed that Redington Mauritius (an arm of Kewalram Chanrai Group from Singapore) held 28.89 per cent of the company’s equity. At the same time, Synnex held 27.80 per cent of its equity. Latest data from the Bombay Stock Exchange shows the promoter’s holding in Redington for the period ended May 27 has come down to 28.80 per cent. It is believed that as a consequence of today’s deal, the stakes held by both these big investors would have fallen below 26 per cent. This is the second action coming from a PE player over the past few days. Recently, Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm, announced that it is investing Rs 2,250 crore ($500 million) in the Welspun group. The investment will be made in steel pipe maker Welspun Corp Ltd (WCL) and two other companies in the group that included Welspun Maxteel Ltd and Welspun Infratech Ltd.