The Central Government on Friday raked in over Rs.620 crore through sale of its 6 per cent stake ina aluminium producer Nalco, taking it closer to its disinvestment target for the fiscal.
Nalco share sale, whose size was pruned to 12.88 crore shares or 5 per cent plus an option to retain an equal number in case of over-subscription, managed to get bids for 15.69 crore or 6 per cent of government shareholding.
The government, which priced the issue at a discount of Rs.40 a share, decided to retain all of additional bids for over 2.81 crore shares that came in.
The auction had received bids for over 15.69 crore shares, against an offer of over 12.88 crore shares, according to stock exchanges’ data.
The indicative price, which is the weighted average price of all valid bids, was Rs.40.05 a share. At this price, the government would garner over Rs.620 crore.
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on disinvestment, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, on Wednesday cleared stake sale of 25.77 crore shares, or up to 10 per cent, in Nalco through the offer for sale (OFS) route.
The government had structured the issue in this way as it was not very confident about the demand, sources said, adding that the Disinvestment Department was not happy with the response to the offer.
Shares down
Shares of Nalco closed at Rs.40.35, down 8.81 per cent over the previous close on the BSE.
Bids for over 4.08 crore shares were with 100 per cent margin, meaning if a bidder decides to withdraw later he can do so. Over 11.60 crore shares attracted bids with zero per cent margin, according to the NSE data.
