Financial services giant Citigroup, which owns 47.4 per cent of India's Polaris Software Lab Ltd, is looking to sell a five to six per cent stake to a strategic investor, a top Citigroup India official told Reuters on Thursday.
Citi may sell 5-6% of Polaris Soft to investor.
"We plan to lower our holding to about 42 per cent," Ajay Relan, India head of Citigroup Emerging Markets Investments, said from his office in New Delhi. "The stake will be offered to a strategic or private equity investor."
He said some private equity funds had shown an interest in buying the stake and a deal could be struck within the next 45 days.
But Citigroup would not lower its stake if it did not find the right buyer, Relan said.
Shares of Polaris Software, a mid-sized software services company, had plunged as much as 13 per cent to Rs 156 earlier in the day after The Times of India daily reported that Citigroup could cut its holding to 35 per cent.
Brokers had also feared that Citigroup could sell the shares in the open market.
Relan also said Citigroup was consolidating its holdings in Polaris by bringing them under one group company.
As part that process, it had transferred about 1.9 million shares, or 3.7 per cent Polaris' equity, from one unit to OrbiTech Ltd, another subsidiary, he said.
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