The discounts offered to PSU employees in public offers are not attractive enough to ensure their mass participation, according to the Standing Committee of Public Sector Enterprises (Scope), a representative body of public sector companies.
The government is in the process of divesting a part of its stake in key PSUs like Steel Authority of India, ONGC and IOC in a bid to meet the Budget target of raising Rs 40,000 crore from disinvestment in the current fiscal. The government has already divested its stake in SJVN, Engineers India and Coal India. However, the response of employees to the public issue of these companies was much below expectations. Scope feels that the upcoming public issues should offer a relatively higher discount to the employees to give them a feeling of ownership in the company.
?The response of employees has not been very encouraging even though Scope has been campaigning for employee stock options (Esops). Employees of PSUs cannot be considered on a par with other share subscribers as they are contributing to the growth of their companies on a daily basis. They should be given preferential treatment by way of 10-20% discount, depending on the situation?, UD Choubey, director-general of Scope, said.
?This would in turn create a sense of belonging and the return from that would far outweigh the discounts offered?, he felt.
?Coal India Ltd, which was earlier considered not-so-good a company, could instill such confidence in investors about its hidden worth that its initial public issue was oversubscribed by 16 times. This has proved that other companies, including financially stressed ones, have hidden worth and will attract large investors if they go to the market?, Choubey argued.