Eight PSUs likely to hit market in third quarter

As part of the government’s disinvestment plans, around eight public sector companies are likely to hit the capital market in the October-December period, a top official said.

Bhel, SAIL, Hindustan Copper, Nalco, NMDC, NTPC, Neyveli Lignite and RINL are lined up for disinvestment in the next quarter, disinvestment secretary M H Khan said.

‘We have taken a broad decision that in this third quarter we have to do so many things. I think, there are decent numbers.Seven or eight companies are lined up and they are at various level of preparations,’  said Khan on Tuesday.

Though all these PSUs are lined up for stake sale, whichever is ready first will hit the market, he said, adding, it will be difficult to predict which company will hit the market first as it depends on many factors.

Through the disinvestment process, the government will offload at least 5 per cent of its holding in these companies.

Referring to the timeline for NMDC and Nalco stake sale in particular, in which the Department of Disinvestment has already started the process, Khan said, ‘I think, that should be in the third quarter. But, then there are certain procedural issues. Unless there are some serious derailment of the procedure, I think that should be in the third quarter’.

Earlier this month, the Department had invited bids from merchant bankers for stake sale in two navratna companies - NMDC and Nalco. Referring to stake sale in Oil India, Khan said, ‘They have already started the procedure. As soon as the authorisations are in place, it will go ahead’. The government has proposed to raise Rs 30,000 crore from disinvestment in this fiscal. However, it has failed to come out with any public offering so far. Last fiscal, the government missed its disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore due to volatile market conditions.