Dutch financial major ING on Thursday sold 1.27 crore shares in Kotak Mahindra Bank for a little over Rs 1,440 crore through an open market transaction.

As of September, ING Mauritius Investments, the investment arm of the Dutch bank, held 3.73 per cent, or over 7.11 crore shares in the private lender, data available with stock exchanges showed.

According to bulk deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE), ING sold a total of 1,27,45,702 shares of the private sector bank.

The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 1,130 apiece, valuing the transaction at Rs 1,440.26 crore.

Of the over 1.27 crore shares, the Singapore government will pick up more than 95.57 lakh shares of the bank for Rs 1,080 crore.

Earlier in 2016, ING had off-loaded a 2.5 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank for an estimated Rs 3,653 crore.

The transaction led to the shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank gaining on bourses. The bank scrip closed nearly up 3 per cent, or Rs 33.10, higher at Rs 1,162.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

During the second quarter ended September 30, Kotak Mahindra Bank saw its standalone net profit rising to

Rs 1,142 crore compared with Rs 994 crore in the same period of last year. The quarter saw the lender’s core net interest income rising to Rs 2,689 crore from Rs 2,313 crore in the same period of last year.

On the deposits front, its average savings deposits grew 43 per cent to Rs 68,630 crore against Rs 48,127 crore in the year-ago period.