Dhanlaxmi Bank sells 7.3 lakh shares of Tree House

Tree House Education and Accessories , which made its debut on the bourses yesterday, gave up all its gains in the last half an hour of trade due to profit booking, weak market conditions and offloading of huge exposure by bank.

The stock of educational services provider touched an intra-day high of Rs 161.50, before closing down nearly 14% at Rs 116.55 as against issue price of Rs 135 a share. Intra-day low hit by the stock was Rs 104.15.

Issue price for the qualified institutional buyers and non-institutional investors was fixed at Rs 135 a share and Rs 129 (discount of Rs 6 to issue price) a share for retail investors.

More than 3.5 crore equity shares changed hands in total 61 bulk deals at average price of Rs 140.14/share yesterday.

Dhanlaxmi Bank offloaded its entire holding in the company in two lots. It sold 4,44,954 shares at Rs 137.2 and Rs 2,84,236 shares at Rs 137.21 a share.

Mumbai-based brokerage firm Inventure Growth & Securities too reduced its exposure to the company by 1,72,872 shares at Rs 139.22/share.

However, Matrix Capital Management Master Fund bought 2 lakh equity shares at Rs 123.68/share.

Traded volume on both exchanges was more than 4.95 crore equity shares—nearly six times higher than issue size of 84.3 lakh shares.

Tree House operates the largest number of self-operated pre-schools in India. (Source: CRISIL Report - December 2010).

It intends to utilise the issue proceeds (of Rs 112.06 crore) for expansion of pre-school business; acquisition of office space; procurement of exclusivity rights to provide educational services; construction of infrastructure for educational complexes in Rajasthan and Gujarat; and repayment of loan.

Piramal Healthcare to acquire 5.5% stake in Vodafone Essar

 Piramal Healthcare has entered into an agreement with Vodafone Group to pick up a 5.5% stake in Vodafone-Essar. It will buy this stake from Essar Group company ETHL Communications Holdings, for around Rs 2,856 crore.

The transaction follows the settlement between Vodafone and Essar over the sale of Essar's approximately 33% stake in Vodafone-Essar, which was announced on July 1, 2011.

The deal is in line with Piramal's objective of earning 19% internal rate of return (IRR). And, it contemplates various exit mechanisms for Piramal, including both participation in a potential initial public offering of VEL and a sale of its stake to Vodafone. (HERE 's expert review on the deal)

Sources indicate that Piramal as two years to exit if the IPO doesn't materialise and would get USD 900 million if sold to Vodafone, whose value is close to USD 19 billion.