HCL Technologies on Tuesday closed down 1.25 per cent after Shiv Nadar family-run investment firm Vama Sundari Investments (Delhi) offloaded 63 lakh shares at ₹1,420 a share in the company through block deals on the NSE. In a subsequent filing, HCL Technologies said the stake had been bought by a new promoter group company called HCL Corp Pvt Ltd. As of December 2013, promoters held 61.75 per cent stake in HCL Technologies. The stake swap does not alter the promoter group’s holding.

The share sale, totalling 0.9 per cent stake in HCL Tech, was valued at ₹894.60 crore, it said in a statement to the exchanges. Following the block deal, Vama Sundari’s stake in HCL Tech fell to 42.90 per cent from 43.80 per cent earlier.

Earlier media reports said HCL Tech founder Shiv Nadar was looking at selling his 61.75 per cent stake valued at more than $11 billion. The company, India’s fourth-largest software exporter, had denied the report.

The company has been witnessing a phenomenal run on the bourses. On March 4, the company’s stock had registered a lifetime high of ₹1,588.65 on the BSE. Analysts have been re-rating the stock with higher target prices after the company announced strong performance in the last few quarters. For the second quarter ended December 2013, HCL Tech reported a 58.4-per cent rise in consolidated net profit at ₹1,496 crore on growth in manufacturing and infrastructure services. The firm, which follows the July-June fiscal year, had posted a net profit of ₹944 crore in the year-ago period.

Nomura, which reiterated a buy on the stock with a revised price target of ₹1,700, said HCL Technologies has been the best performer among tier-1 IT companies over the last one year. “We still find the stock attractive with valuation of sub-14x (14 multiple) for FY15 EPS and a strong EPS CAGR of 32 per cent over FY13-15.”

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