Infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro Ltd. on Thursday acquired 25,000 shares of Mindtree Ltd., taking its total holding in the mid-tier IT firm to 28.90 percent, according to a regulatory filing.
"This is to inform you that Larsen and Toubro Ltd. has acquired 25,000 equity shares (with face value of Rs 10 each) of Mindtree Ltd. on June 6, 2019," L&T said in the regulatory filing.
The shares were purchased at Rs 971.03 apiece from the open market. A rough calculation showed that the company spent close to Rs 2.43 crore for this transaction. Following the transaction, L&T shareholding in Mindtree increased to 28.90 percent, 4.74 crore shares, as against 28.88 percent earlier, it said.
The development assumes significance as L&T has been steadily increasing its holding in the Bengaluru-based software services firm where it acquired around 20 percent stake of VG Siddhartha and Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd., recently.
L&T, which has been pursuing a hostile takeover of Mindtree, has expressed its intent to ramp-up its shareholding up to 66 percent.
L&T had in March mounted a hostile takeover bid for Mindtree when it entered into a deal to buy Cafe Coffee Day owner VG Siddhartha's 20.32 percent stake in Mindtree, and also placed an order with brokers to pick up another 15 percent of the company's shares from the open market.
Subsequent to these deals, L&T is required to make an open offer to buy additional stake. In all, the infrastructure major is eyeing up to 66 percent stake in Mindtree for around Rs 10,800 crore.
On Thursday, Mindtree shares fell 0.53 percent to Rs 966.85 apiece on the BSE while L&T's shed 3.41 percent to Rs 1,516.50. The benchmark Sensex closed 1.38 percent lower at 39,529.72 points.
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