Citigroup bought 1.05 crore shares of Petronet LNG through its subsidiary, Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Private Limited on Thursday. After the transaction, this subsidiary of the New York based Citigroup Financial Products will hold 1.41 per cent stake and become the fourth largest shareholder in Petronet LNG after the promoters.

The company’s four promoters are public sector undertakings, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, GAIL India, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Each promoter holds a 12.5 per cent stake each in Petronet LNG.

Citigroup had entered Petronet LNG when France's GDF International sold its entire 10 per cent stake for nearly Rs 3,200 crore through open market transactions.

Stichting Depositary APG Emerging Markets is other large buyer of GDF’s stake in Petronet LNG and had bought 39.26 lakh shares on Thursday. This will be added to its 79.51 lakh shares of Stichting Depositary as of March 2017. Smallcap World Fund and T. Rowe Price International Growth and Income Fund are the other large shareholders in Petronet LNG.

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 went in for a bulk deal in two lots to offload its 10 per cent stake. This resulted in the Petronet LNG share closing 3.25 per cent lower on Thursday. The shares were offloaded in two tranches of 30 million shares at Rs 422.17 per share and 45 million shares at Rs 421.09 per share.

The company’s share price recovered on Friday to close 1.74 per cent higher at Rs 433.20.

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