Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Fund sells stake in ICICI Bank

: Foreign fund Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Fund has sold about 2.94 crore shares or less than 1% stake in ICICI Bank Ltd. for ₹ 823.40 crore in an open market transaction on Monday.

The share sales comes amid the controversy over bank sanctioning ₹ 3,250 crore of loans to Videocon Group because its chairman Venugopal Dhoot supposedly had dealings with NuPower Renewables Ltd., founded by ICICI Bank’s MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar. The bank has denied the allegations and its board has defended its CEO. The loan dealings are under investigation.

According to block deal data on BSE, Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Fund sold the shares at ₹280 per share. The shares were picked up by Merrill Lynch Markets Singapore PTE Ltd.

As of December 2017, foreign investors own a 47.34% stake in the ICICI Bank.

Shares of ICICI Bank ended flat at ₹ 280.45 on BSE on Monday.