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Sale of govt's 29.5% stake in HZL cleared by Cabinet

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday cleared the government's 29.5 per cent stake sale in HZL, which could fetch around Rs 38,000 crore to the exchequer, sources said.

"The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the HZL stake sale," sources said.

The decision would give a push to the government's disinvestment drive in the current fiscal. The government has budgeted Rs 65,000 crore from PSU disinvestment and strategic sale.

The sale of 29.5 per cent stake representing over 124.96 crore shares would fetch around Rs 38,000 crore to the exchequer at current market prices.

Shares of HZL closed at Rs 305.05, up 3.14 per cent on the BSE. During the day, the scrip touched a high of Rs 317.30 a share.

Hindustan Zinc was a government-owned company till 2002. In April 2002, the government offloaded a 26 per cent stake in HZL to Sterlite Opportunities and Ventures Ltd (SOVL) for Rs 445 crore thereby giving Vedanta Group management control in HZL.

Vedanta Group later bought 20 per cent from the market and another 18.92 per cent from the government in November 2003, raising its ownership in Hindustan Zinc to 64.92 per cent.

Vedanta, led by mining magnate Anil Agarwal, recently said the company can buy just 5 per cent additional stakes in the HZL considering the price of the shares on offer.

According to media reports, the Union Cabinet has also decided to close the Bharat Gold Mines Ltd (BGML). The company's operations have been shut since 2001. Recently BGML's Kolar Gold Fields was in the news because of the Southern blockbuster film KGF Chapter 2.

Around 50 percent of the movie was filmed at 'Cyanide Gudda', an area in the Kolar Gold Fields, in Karnataka's Kolar district.

According to the source, the Cabinet has decided to transfer the majority of the land to the newly formed National Land Monetisation Corporation, while around 250 acres will be transferred to the Karnataka state government.

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