MUMBAI: Kalanithi Maran?s open offer was lapped up on the bourses on Wednesday. The founder of the Sun TV Network had to divest two per cent of his holding in the company to comply with a Sebi regulation which specifies that public shareholdings in listed entities should be a minimum of 25 per cent. And the deadline to achieve that is 4 June 2013.

Maran had put 7.88 million shares on the market, and the offer was oversubscribed 3.17 times, so say media reports. The share was bought at levels much higher than the floor price of Rs 403 each that had been set.

Because of brisk demand for Sun TV shares, its price rose during trading and at closing it was at Rs 428.50, a tad higher than its opening. One of the estimates put out by livemint.com is that Maran raised almost Rs 327.8 crore through the stock sale.
 
With this divestment,Maran now holds around 295.52 million shares in Sun TV.