Government sells ’Enemy ’Shares in Wipro worth Rs 1,150 crore

Mangalore Today News Network

New Dehi, Apr 06, 2019 : The government amassed Rs 1,149.5 crore by selling enemy shares in IT major Wipro to state-owned insurers. The Custodian of Enemy Property for India, a government entity which oversees enemy property and shares, offloaded more than 4.43 crore shares in the Azim Premji-backed firm at Rs 258.90 apiece, according to the block deal data available with BSE, Yahoo reported.

 

The assets left behind by the people who migrated to Pakistan and China and no longer continue to be citizens of India fall under the category of enemy property. According to Enemy Property Act, 1968, enemy property refers to any property belonging to, held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an enemy subject or an enemy firm.

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The cabinet in November 2018 had asked the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) to sell such shares held in the companies. In the first ever sale of enemy shares, the Modi government had earned Rs 700 crore in the fiscal year 2019.

Sale proceeds are to be deposited as disinvestment proceeds in the government account maintained by the Ministry of Finance,” the statement said.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) alone purchased 3.86 crore shares in the block deal. The public insurer now holds 26.52 crore shares or 4.39 per cent stake in Wipro, according to the latest shareholding pattern available with the BSE. General Insurance Corporation of India and The New India Insurance Corporation were the other firms to buy shares in the block deal, according to the BSE data.

The share price of Wipro were trading at Rs 262.15, up 3.10 points, or 1.20 per cent on NSE at the time of reporting.