The government plans to sell upto 1.5% equity stake in state-run oil and gas giant ONGC Ltd via an offer for sale of equity shares over two days beginning tomorrow, to raise upto Rs 3,000 crore. It will sell about 19 crore shares at a floor price of Rs 159 per share. The ONGC OFS will open tomorrow, ie, 30 March for non-retail bidders, and will be open on 31 March for retail investors, the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.
The proposed offer consists of a base offer of about 9.5 crore shares or 0.75% equity stake, and an equal amount to retain in case of oversubscription, taking the total potential offer size to 1.5%. The Government of India has a little over 60% stake in ONGC Ltd, per the last shareholding data available. The investors will be allowed to bid at or above the floor price of Rs 159; or they could choose to bid at ‘cut off’ price. The allocation will happen on the basis of multiple clearing prices, in accordance with the OFS guidelines.
ONGC shares ended over 3 percent lower at Rs 171.05 on the BSE on Tuesday.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, had last week, said that India lost 3.8 million tonnes of crude oil worth Rs 11,276 crore in four years due to less than planned water injection by ONGC in its western offshore fields.
The Centre has been able to garner around Rs 45,485.87 crore through proceeds of divestment and dividends combined, as of January 2022. The divestment target for the fiscal year 2022, though initially was set at Rs 1.75 trillion, was later lowered to Rs 78,000 crore in the Budget 2022.
