Foreign fund houses Goldman Sachs Investments Mauritius and Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte today picked up a total 55 lakh shares of Pantaloon Retail for an estimated Rs 144 crore.

The shares were purchased through bulk deals on the stock exchanges.

The transactions occured after the Reserve Bank eased restrictions on the purchase of shares in the company by foreign institutional investors (FII) and by non-resident Indians as well as persons of Indian origin.

Individually, Goldman Sachs Investments Mauritius I Ltd purchased 28.70 lakh shares of Pantaloon Retail India for an average price of Rs 263.30 valuing the deal size at Rs 75.57 crore, as per information available with the stock exchanges.

Besides, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte bought 26.05 lakh shares of Pantaloon Retail for Rs 262.17 apiece, bringing the transaction size to Rs 68.29 crore.

At the same time, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte offloaded three lakh shares of the retail firm for Rs 8 crore.

Additionally, Kotak Securities bought 2,000 shares of Pantaloon Retail for Rs 5.5 lakh, while it also sold 14.5 lakh shares of the firm for Rs 38.32 crore.

The RBI in a notification yesterday said, “The aggregate share holdings by FIIs, NRIs and PIOs under portfolio investment scheme in Pantaloon Retail has gone below the prescribed threshold limit stipulated under extant foreign direct investment policy.”

“Hence, the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares of the above company on behalf of FIIs/NRIs/PIOs, are withdrawn with immediate effect,” the RBI said.

As on December quarter, total FII holding in the company stands at 21.98 per cent.

Shares of the company surged by around 10 per cent to settle at Rs 266.10 apiece on the BSE.

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