Patni promoters sell 3% stake in 11 days

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Chennai: Persons close to the feuding promoters of Patni Computer System are apparently losing their hope for an immediate amicable settlement of the ownership issue of the company, as they have been selling part of their stake in open market. From November 16-26, they sold a tad over 3% of their holdings or 18.83 lakh shares via open market sale. The prominent among the sellers were Ayushi Patni, AK Patni and Amit Patni.

The open market sales by persons close to promoters have caught market men off guard as they were expecting an early end to the ownership tussle among three brothers--Narrendra Kumar Patni, Gajendra Kumar Patni and Ashok Kumar Patni. "This is indeed surprising as their outstanding disputes are being thrashed out. The company has apparently opened talks with a few firms for a possible all-cash sell off", an analyst with a foreign brokerage house said. "This indeed would hit the overall valuation of the company, as once the news about persons close to the management selling stake in the company hits the market, the stock is bound to take a beating," another analyst with a brokerage house said.

At current prices, Patni has an estimated enterprise value of close to $1.5 billion. The stock closed on the BSE at Rs 435.60 on Friday, down by 1.55%. The stock has seen a yearly high of Rs 522.70 and and a yearly low of Rs 94.

As per information available with FE, while Ayushi Patni and Akruti Patni sold one lakh shares each on November 16, AK Patni sold 2 lakh shares. On November 17, Amit Patni, Arihant Patni and AK Patni together sold four lakh shares, while Amit Patni sold 1.5 lakh, Arihant 1.5 lakh and AK Patni 3 lakh shares on the next day. On November 19, Amit and Arihant sold 25,000 shares each while Sadhana Patni sold 50,000 shares. Incidentally, none of the sales took place through the usual bulk or block deal windows of the exchanges.