Foreign investors want govt to defer Coal India Limited stake sale

Opposing an immediate stake sale in Coal India Ltd, foreign investors have told the Finance Ministry that further disinvestment in the coal miner should be put off as the current market valuation is low.

Foreign investors such as Fidelity, Wellington Management and BlackRock have also conveyed that 

they might look at selling their holding in Coal India since the share price could plummet further in case the disinvestment happens soon, sources said.

The Cabinet had last month approved a 10 per cent disinvestment in Coal India, which could fetch about Rs 20,000 crore at the current market prices. "Long-term investors have clearly told the Disinvestment Department that stake sale should not happen now as valuations are very low. They have said they will not invest and rather sell their current investments if government proceeds with stake sale," a source said. The Department of Disinvestment (DoD) is also of the view that current market scenario is not conducive to a major stake sale like that of Coal India. "In today's date, there is no scope for Coal India," an official said.

In January, the government had sold 10 per cent stake in the company at a floor price of Rs 358 a piece. The stake sale had fetched about Rs 22,600 crore to the exchequer. However, the share price of the PSU has declined over 14 per cent since then and has come down to Rs 307. 

The government had last month shortlisted five Indian merchant bankers including JM Financial, SBI Capital and ICICI Securities for managing the over Rs 20,000-crore stake sale in Coal India. "Foreign bankers like Deutsche, Citi, Morgan Stanley were all interested to bid for managing Coal India stake sale.