A gradual cashout

Utpal Sheth, the 41-year-old chief executive officer of Rare Enterprises, owned by Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, recently sold 25,000 shares of bio-ethanol process engineering major, Praj Industries. Sheth currently holds 76,650 shares in the company, which posted an 18% drop in net profit to ₹28 crore and 10% decline in sales to ₹365 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal year. 

Incidentally, Jhunjhunwala is the single largest public shareholder in the company with around 8%. But he has pruned his holding from peak levels of around 12% in 2006 even as the stock has lost ground from its 2007 closing high of ₹262 and is languishing at around ₹50 now. Though the government has made mandatory 5% ethanol blending from December 2012, the outlook towards the stock has not changed for the better. While the company’s outstanding order-book stands at ₹826 crore, the management expects the business environment to be challenging.