Kotak Mahindra Bank to Buy 15% Stake in MCX from FTIL

According to an announcement by the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has entered into a share purchase agreement to buy 15 percent equity stake in Multi Commodity Exchange of India from Financial Technologies Limited. The deal has been agreed for a price of ₹459 crore ($76.2 million).

According to VCC Circle, the deal has been approved for ₹600 per share, with a good amount of discount. On Monday, the stock price of MCX surged by ₹26.20 or 10.96 percent and was recorded at ₹872.70 per share, during trading hours.

However, the deal is subject to certain conditions as FTIL's stake is on hold till March 2015.

"We are happy that Kotak Mahindra Bank will become a significant minority shareholder in MCX and will contribute towards the next phase of growth of MCX as a responsible public shareholder. FTIL will continue to remain a technology partner to MCX and will work closely with MCX to take MCX to even greater heights." Moneycontrol quoted Venkat Chary, Non-executive Chairman of FTIL.

FTIL's stake had declined to 24 percent when billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought shares worth ₹66 crore earlier this month, reported The Economic Times. The deal involved transfer of 1 million shares at ₹664 each.

The purchase of stake by Jhunjhunwala in MCX took place after FTIL's founder Jignesh Shah' s involvement in scam of ₹5600 crore of its subsidiary National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEl). Followed by the allegation, Forward Markets Commission (FMC) directed FTIL to bring down shares of MCX to 2 percent from 26 percent.

On the other hand, Kotak Mahindra Bank informed about this deal to BSE after declaring its first quarter results of fiscal year 2015 on 16 July. The consolidated balance sheet of Kotak Mahindra group is around ₹1.3 lakh crore and the net worth of the Group stands at ₹19,758 crore ($3.3 billion) as on 30June 2014.