TCI Cyprus Holding Ltd, a Foreign Institutional Investor (FII), seems to be an active player amongst the Indian banks for over a period of few months. The investor has picked up sizeable stake in nearly half-a-dozen Indian banks, particularly the public sector banks, and holds stakes between 2% and 8%, said market sources.
In the last few months, it has picked up stakes in public sector banks such as Oriental Bank of Commerce, Vijaya Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank among others. In the last few days alone, the investor actively increased its stake in Vijaya Bank to 6.6% (3.09%), OBC to 7.46% and on Wednesday, it increased stake in the Chennai-based IOB to 7.67%, said the sources. The investor said to have invested over Rs 1,700 crore, including in other areas, the sources added. According to sources these are all pure investments not strategic.TCI Cyprus is exploiting the weak market conditions to buy at lower rates to encash with higher margins at a latter date. When contacted SA Bhat, chairman and managing director, IOB, said that a FII can hold upto a maximum of 10% in banks as per RBI stipulation.
