The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group will buy the stake from Indiabulls Financial Services in the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), jointly founded by Indiabulls and trading giant MMTC.
"The sale of 26 percent by Indiabulls was approved by the ministry of consumer affairs on Thursday," B.C. Khatua, chairman, Forwards Markets Commission, was quoted by the paper as saying.
"While both ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) and MMTC will jointly perform an anchor investor's role, MMTC could exercise the right of first refusal in case Indiabulls wants to sell the rest of its stake to ADAG," he told the paper.
As an anchor investor ADAG's stake will have a three-year lock-in period from Thursday," Khatua said.
The Anil Ambani group controls India's No.2 telecom firm Reliance Communications and financial services firm Reliance Capital.