3iInfotech in the red

 3iInfotech, earlier promoted by ICICI Bank, is not doing well today despite announcing that it is selling its entire 74% stake in Locuz Enterprises for Rs.23 crore.

The stock price, a penny stock, is currently in the red, going down to Rs.1.98 (FV of Rs.10).

The company had acquired Locuz in two parts – first 23% stake in 2008 for Rs.7 crore and this stake was increased to 74% for Rs.16 crore So it spent Rs.23 crore for buying the stake and today, ten years later, it sold at the same price.

Earlier, in 2013, when it first proposed to sell stake, it was looking at raking in Rs.60 crore. And today, to sell at this cost-to-cost obviously was a bad deal.

To ease its liquidity crunch, 3i Infotech has been in the process of a debt restructuring scheme since 2016, initiated by its lenders after the company failed to repay foreign currency convertible bonds.