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US Tycoon George Soros
Picks Up 4 pc stake in BSE?
in 1988 under French securities
laws for insider trading in French
Bank Société Générale.
In 1997, he earned the dubious
nickname "the man who broke
the Bank of England," for selling
short more than $10 billion worth
of pounds, which forced the Bank
of England to withdraw the
currency from the European
Exchange Rate Mechanism,
leading to the devaluation of the
pound. Soros had booked a
profit of $1.1 billion, through this
brazen action.
US billionaire George Soros is reported to have acquired
a 4.0-percent stake in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for
about $35 million, valuing the oldest bourse in Asia at
around $875 million. According to newspaper reports,
which quoted sources involved in the transaction, the
stake was acquired through Soros' Quantum hedge fund
from Dubai Financial, owned by the emirate's ruler,
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Soros is
reported to have paid around Rs375-380 a share.
Soros, the world's 29th richest person, according to
Forbes with a net worth of approximately $7.2 billion,
had been in late-stage negotiations to buy Dubai
Financial's 4.0-percent stake in the BSE for some time.
Dubai Financial had been looking to sell its stake in the
BSE for quite some time and Indian laws allow individual
foreign entities to own not more than 5.0 percent in local
stock exchanges.
Soros, who had once boasted that removing the then US
President George Bush was "central focus of my life" and
donated more than $23,000,000 to over 500 groups to
defeat Bush's re-election in 2004, was fined $2.3 million
The 135-year-old BSE, which has
the world's largest number of
companies - 4900 - listed on it.
The market capitalisation of the
companies listed on the BSE was
$1.28 trillion as of February
2010, making it then the largest
stock exchange in South Asia and the 12th largest in the
world.
Recently, George Kaiser, one of the top 50 richest people
in the world and among the top 50 American
philanthropists, bought 3.9 percent in BSE through his
private equity firm Oklahoma-based Argonaut Ventures,
while Canadian fund manager Urbana Corp hiked its
stake to 2.6 percent. Other major global shareholders in
BSE are Deutsche Boerse and Singapore Stock
Exchange, both of which hold 5.0 percent each, while
Atticus Mauritius, Acacia Banyan and Caldwell Asset
Management also hold small stakes. Foreign investors,
SBI, LIC and other public shareholders collectively own
55 per cent in BSE, while the remaining 45 percent is held
by stock brokers.
INDO-US BUSINESS SPECIAL ISSUE
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