Riding on strong demand from retail and institutional buyers, the government’s 5 per cent stake sale in power sector lender PFC was lapped up by investors, fetching about Rs 1,600 crore to the exchequer. Despite a steep decline in broader markets, the offer for sale (OFS) for 6.60 crore Power Finance Corp (PFC) shares received bids for 15.42 crore shares worth Rs 3,747 crore.
The OFS finally got subscribed 2.34 times, making it the second successful disinvestment of current fiscal.
“Today Nifty showed its steepest fall since 2011 and there was an Asian market collapse and China market too collapsed considerably... Despite that we managed to have a successful offering. We got bids worth Rs 3,747 crore,” Disinvestment Secretary Aradhana Johri told reporters here.
Although <g data-gr-id="15">Johri</g> did not give an exact amount that would come to the exchequer, she said: “I do not visualise anything very different from what we indicated earlier”. At a floor price of Rs 254 apiece, selling 6.6 crore shares, the government is expected to get over Rs 1,600 crore.