The UK government has disclosed details of 16 priority investors who were given preferential treatment in the Royal Mail sell-off and allocated £728m in shares.
The 16 priority investors include hedge fund houses such as Third Point, Soros and Lansdowne Partners.
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The list does not include tracker fund providers such as Legal & General Investment Management, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, and Vanguard, which was revealed by Vince Cable, the business secretary.
The priority firms include: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BlackRock, Capital Research, Fidelity Worldwide, GIC (Singapore sovereign wealth fund), Henderson, JP Morgan, Kuwait Investment Office, Lansdowne Partners, Lazard Asset Management, Och Ziff, Schroders, Soros Fund Management, Standard Life, Third Point and Threadneedle.
Out of these prioritized 16 investors, twelve have already sold all or part of their stakes.
This has caused the index funds to buy stock in the secondary market at a higher rate, facilitating buyers for the priority investors.
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By GlobalDataAn index fund provider said: "We are not going to take the opportunity for a quick buck because that’s not what index funds do."
"We are long-term holders of this stock. We will hold it until it leaves the index, which might be 20 years or more. We will not sell it like, dare I say it, some of the people on the list.We are trying to do the best for our clients. We would like to be treated fairly," he added.
The UK government has excluded the passive index fund managers from the list of 16 priority investors to participate in the Royal Mail float.
Active asset managers that buy stock irrespective of the price and those that prefer not to be included in the priority list of investors have also criticised the Royal mail float and suggested privatisations in the future should be handled diligently.
