Citigroup, Stichting Depositary APG Emerging Markets, and others have independently acquired French company GDF International’s stake in Petronet LNG Ltd through open market transactions.

The French firm has offloaded its entire 10 per cent stake in PLL for nearly ₹3,200 crore. While Citigroup has acquired 1.05 crore shares of PLL through its subsidiary, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Private Ltd, Stiching Depositary APG Emerging Markets has bought 39.26 lakh shares. It already has 79.51 lakh shares in the company.

PLL is promoted by public sector undertakings Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, GAIL (India), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, holding 12.5 per cent each.

GDF was initially looking for a block deal to contain share price fluctuations on the bourses when offloading its 7.5 crore shares. But eventually it went in for a bulk deal in two lots to offload 10 per cent stake. This resulted in the Petronet LNG share closing 3.25 per cent lower in intra-day trade on Thursday. The company’s share price has recovered partially and closed 1.74 per cent higher at ₹433.20 per share on Friday. The shares were offloaded in two tranches:30 million shares at ₹422.17 per share and 45 million shares at ₹421.09 per share.

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