Sobha shares tumble over 8% after promoters sell stake

Shares of Sobha tumbled as much as 8.45 per cent in early trade on Monday after the real estate company on Friday post market hours informed bourses that its promoter Sobha Menon sold 40 lakh shares or 4.15 per cent stake in the company at an average price of Rs 414.9 per share on Friday.

The scrip was trading 7.20 per cent down at Rs 385.65. Shares of the company opened at Rs 402.65 and touched an intraday high and low of Rs 403.95 and Rs 380.40, respectively, in trade so far. Benchmark BSE Sensex was up 33.76 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 29,740.37.

According to the data, Adawi Investments Holdings picked up 41.6 lakh shares of the company at the same average price.

Sobha Menon held four crore shares or 41.9 per cent in the Bengaluru-based developer as of March.

On a year-to-date basis, shares of the company have advanced over 65 per cent to Rs 415.55 till April 7, whereas BSE Sensex jumped 11.68 per cent during the same period.

According to market experts, Sobha has plans to reduce its net debt equity ratio from 0.8:1 to 0.7:1. The company is comfortable with its land bank and therefore does not plan to add to it. Cash flow is expected to help reduce the net debt-equity ratio to 0.7:1.