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Shetty bought over 770,000 shares at an average price of around ₹98 a share in eight tranches

Mahesh Shetty, the founder of tutorials major, MT Educare, was on a buying spree the whole of June. Shetty bought over 770,000 shares at an average price of around ₹98 a share in eight tranches. Interestingly, the buying binge follows a pledge created by Shetty in favour of Tata Capital on May 30 for over 4.1 million shares. Whether the subsequent purchases were with the aim of keeping the price buoyant post the pledge is not clear. The promoter currently holds 44% stake in MT Educare, which started with one centre in Mumbai in 1998, and has since spread its wings across eight states in 128 locations. Well-known private investor, Shivanand Mankekar, too, holds close to 5% in the company. Analysts are bullish about the company’s prospects and expect MT Educare to compound sales at 26% and profits of 29% respectively over FY13-FY15. Since the company receives fees in advance, it operates on negative working capital. Thus, with low capex spend and negative working capital, analysts expect stellar return ratios in the future.