The government may take a call on Coal India?s (CIL) follow-on public offer (FPO) between November last week and December first week with the market starting to look up.

An official in the department of public sector enterprise told FE that company?s shares underperformed in the share market, slipping close to 20% since the start of this year.

But we expect the stock to start performing well with the BSE sensex already achieving a new high, the official said.

CIL chairman S Narsing Rao said foreign investors were concerned about the stock?s under-performance, though the road shows in the US and Europe for divesting 5% stake generated huge interest.

?A price above R350 would be ideal when there would be the OFS (offer for sale). But it was for the government to decide when it would take a call,? Rao said.

The official in the disinvestment department said 32 crore shares would be put on the platform and at the current price the government could garner R9,000 crore. But the government would look for the best opportunity while both the market and political considerations would guide the decision, he said adding that the government was looking at December second week for offering CIL?s 5% stake.

However, Rao made clear that non-existent of independent directors would not come in the way of the public offer and the company would have required at least 50% independent directors in its board if it had to exercise the buyback option.

?We won?t go for a buy back now,? Rao said.

He said the government has started the process but there is no mandate that it has to be completed before the FPO.

CIL needs seven independent directors in its board and so far the ministry has appointed former coal secretary Alok Perti, RN Trivedi and Kamal R Gupta as independent directors on the board.

SK Baruah, Sheela Bhide, AK Rath, Mohd Anis Ansari and Sachi Chaudhuri have completed their tenures in the board but their re-appointment is unlikely, a coal ministry official said.

Although the government is yet to finalise the remaining four independent directors? name, former SAIL chairman SK Roongta might be inducted to the board, the ministry official said.