In the biggest disinvestment this fiscal, the government will on Monday sell a 10 per cent stake in nation's largest oil firm IOC to raise about Rs 9,500 crore.
The government, which holds 68.6 <g data-gr-id="24">per cent</g> interest in IOC, will sell 24.28 crore equity shares through an offer for sale (OFC) on Monday, the floor price of which will be announced on Saturday evening. At least 20 <g data-gr-id="25">per cent</g> of the offer size has been reserved for retail investors, who will also get a 5 <g data-gr-id="26">per cent</g> discount to the cut-off price, the government said in a regulatory filing.
Stake sale in IOC will be the fourth disinvestment this fiscal and the biggest so far. The earlier three stake sales had raised just over Rs 3,000 crore. The IOC stake sale will, however, <g data-gr-id="20">dwarf</g> in front of Rs 22,557 crore that the government raised through a stake sale in Coal India Ltd last year.
The government is targeting to raise Rs 69,500 crore from disinvestment in the current fiscal. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is the nation's biggest oil refining and marketing company with 54.2 million tonnes of refining capacity or roughly one-fourth of India's total refining capacity of 215.1 million tonnes.
Besides, it owns and operates 24,405 petrol pumps - a little less than half of India's 53,419 filling stations. Shares of IOC closed 0.70 per cent down at Rs 394.45 apiece on the BSE on Friday. At the current market price, sale of 24.27 crore shares, or 10 <g data-gr-id="27">per cent</g> stake, would fetch the government around Rs 9,500 crore. The decision to sell stake was taken after a ministerial level consultation between Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a source said.
Dredging Corp of India OFS over-subscribed
Government’s 5 per cent stake sale in Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) got over-subscribed today on strong demand from retail investors, fetching Rs 53 crore to the exchequer. With the third disinvestment of the current fiscal, the government has netted over Rs 3,300 crore <g data-gr-id="43">though</g> minority stake sale in PSUs so far this fiscal. The issue generated bids worth Rs 142 crore as investors bid for 37.17 lakh shares against 14 lakh shares on offer. The OFS got subscribed 2.66 times, as per NSE data.