Idea plummets on stake sale

Not surprisingly, Idea Cellular is the top loser on the indices today. The much talked about stake sale by private equity fund, Providence happened. Last week there were rumours about the PE Fund selling stake and the company had clarified that it was not aware of any such occurrence.

But today, Providence did exit Idea; through a block deal, it sold its 3.6% stake in the company, ahead of the proposed merger with Vodafone.

Providence has been selling stake consistently for the past couple of years. It had acquired a 15% stake in 2006 and had paid totally Rs.1800 crore. Today it sold 3.5% for Rs.1330 crore; it sure did hit the jackpot!