US billionaire George Soros said to acquire 4- per cent stake in BSE
20 Aug 2010
US billionaire George Soros is said to have acquired a 4-per cent stake in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for about $35 million, valuing the oldest bourse in Asia at around $875 million.
The Economic Times today reported, citing two sources involved in the transaction that 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-per cent stake in the BSE since last month. (See: George Soros eyes 4-% stake in BSE)
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 per cent 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 in 1988 under French securities laws for insider trading in French Bank Société Générale.