Sloane Robinson LLP, a London-based fund house with focus on short-term and long-term equity deals in the emerging markets of Asia and the Pacific region (APAC), and Mauritius-registered foreign institutional investor (FII) Copthal Mauritius Investment have together picked up close to 8% stake in the Kerala-based non-banking finance company (NBFC), Manappuram General Finance and Leasing. While Sloane Robinson picked up over 4% stake for Rs 101.68 crore, Copthal Mauritius Investment bought 3.94% equity for Rs 99.19 crore in Manappuram General Finance.
Both the deals were reportedly inked through off-market trades on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in April 2010.
Along with this, a Boston-based Wellington Management, an asset management company (AMC) with over $537 billion in client assets, had also picked up close to 2% stake in Manappuram General Finance. The AMC-cum investment adviser had coughed up close to Rs 48.78 crore to lap up 39.64 lakh shares, or 1.94% stake, in the NBFC.
The move by Wellington Management comes after it had acquisition shares in the NBFC via qualified institutional placement (QIP) which raised Rs 245 crore.
The entry of the three fund houses into the NBFC comes at a time when Sequoia Capital had exited the Kerala-based NBFC.