Buoyed by an enthusiastic response to the ongoing initial public offer (IPO) of Coal India Ltd, the government plans to sell stakes in blue chip companies ? SAIL, Indian Oil and ONGC ? between January-March 2011. Coal India IPO of about Rs 15,000 crore was fully subscribed on the second day on Tuesday.
?During the first quarter (January-March) of next calender year, we will see the public offerings of SAIL, IOC and ONGC,? disinvestment secretary Sumit Bose said on Tuesday. The government is confident of achieving its disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore by March 2011, besides achieving its stated objective of wide spread public ownership of profitable PSUs.
Bose said the market has the appetite to absorb these mega IPOs. The government plans to sell 5% stake in ONGC and 10% in Indian Oil to raise about Rs 21,000 crore this fiscal, Oil secretary S Sundareshan had said.
Steel Authority of India?s first phase follow-on public offer (FPO) is estimated to garner about Rs 8,000 crore. SAIL chairman CS Verma said on Monday the first tranche of the company?s 20% share sale programme could be launched in mid-December and if that deadline is missed the same will happen in January-February 2011.
Other companies that will see disinvestment of government stake include Power Grid Corporation that will come out with a share sale offer after Diwali. This will be followed by Manganese Ore India, Shipping Corporation and Hindustan Copper and all these will be completed by December. The government is hoping to complete these offers by December.