The New York-based Galleon Group LLC, which is winding up after its Sri Lankan co-founder Raj Rajaratnam was charged with masterminding a massive insider-trading scheme involving hedge funds, has sold almost half its stake in Indian engineering firm Shriram EPC Ltd, one of the three Indian listed firms in which it directly holds shares.

Galleon sold 950,000 shares in Shriram at Rs223 each to cut its stake in the firm to about 2.4 per cent from 4.6 per cent, according to a filing with the National Stock Exchange. The shares were sold to Indea Long Term Opportunities Master Fund.

Earlier, Galleon had sold It had sold 10 lakh shares, amounting to a 2.3 per cent stake, to Argonaut Ventures at Rs185 per share on 25 September.

The move comes after investors asked Galleon, which managed $3.7 billion worth of funds, to return their money as Rajaratnam told investors and employees he was winding down the Galleon funds. Galleon raised $453,150 (Rs2.1 crore) from the sale.

Galleon also holds a 7.02 per cent stake in Indian financial services firm Edelweiss Capital and a small stake in Pipavav Shipyards Ltd. So far it has made no move to sell these stakes.

Galleon Group is exploring the sale of its unit in Asia among other options after founder Rajaratnam was charged last week by US federal prosecutors with insider trading, according to reports. Galleon opened its Asian headquarters in Singapore last year.

Commenting on the stake sale, T Shivaraman, managing director and chief executive of Shriram EPC, told CNBC-TV18 that his company has not been in touch with Galleon since its problems started, nor has it spoken to the buyer of the Galleon stake.