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Sundaram BNP Paribas MF Picks Up 2 Per Cent Stake in 8KMiles

Mumbai: On the heels of DSP Black Rock MF picking up a 4 per cent stake in 8KMiles, India's only listed pure-play cloud computing firm, Sundaram BNP Paribas MF on Wednesday bought an around 2 per cent in the Silicon Valley-based company at double the price that the former had paid.

The deal was carried out through secondary market operations through the BSE.

One of the investors of 8KMiles Software, Aruna Srinivasan Iyer, sold 1,46,000 shares aggregating to 1.54 per cent equities of the company at Rs 332.46 apiece, while Sundaram BNP Paribas MF picked up 175,000 shares, or a 1.74 per cent stake, in the company at Rs 331.95 apiece.

Early August global fund house DSP Black Rock Mutual Fund had picked up a 4 per cent in 8KMiles for about Rs 6 crore from the secondary market at a price of Rs 175 apiece.

According to BSE data, DSP Black Rock MF had picked up close to 3 lakh shares of 8KMiles Software, which boasts of global biggies like Amazon, IBM, CA Technologies, Visa, AirAsia, among others as clients.

The company, founded by serial entrepreneur Suresh Venkatachari, refused to comment.

8KMiles has been one of be biggest gainers in the recent market rally gaining over six-fold in the past one year alone. While on September 16, 2103, the 8Kmiles shares were trading at Rs 71.35, today it closed at Rs 353.85 on the BSE.

Since the market rally that began with the formation of a new government at the Centre, the 8Kmiles counter nearly doubled from Rs 184.2 to Rs 353.85.

Last month, founder and chief executive Mr Venkatachari had told PTI it was planning to extend its success in offering cloud solutions to the largest Asian low-cost carrier Air Asia to other low-cost airlines.

Though registered in Chennai and listed on the BSE, 8KMiles draws over 75 per cent of its revenue from the US and only 10-15 per cent from the home market, Mr Venkatachari said, adding that the company wanted to increase this to around 25 per cent from here through deals with airlines.

Mr Venkatachari said airlines could save between 25 and 30 per cent of their IT budget if they moved to cloud platform.