The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday gave its nod for sell-off of 12.5 per cent of the Centre’s equity stake in Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd (RCF).
“The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved 12.5 per cent disinvestment in RCF,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said at a press briefing after the CCEA meeting.
At present, the government’s shareholding in the listed ‘Mini-Ratna’ public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers stands at 92.5 per cent. The paid-up equity capital of the company is Rs.551.69 crore
Post-divestment of the 12.5 per cent stake, the Centre’s holding in RCF will stand reduced to 80 per cent. At the current market price of Rs.57.60 per share of RCF on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the stake sale is expected to fetch about Rs.360 crore to the exchequer.
According to an official statement here, RCF is engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing fertilisers and industrial chemicals such as methanol, methylamines, ammonium bicarbonate and ammonium nitrate from its two operating units at Trombay and Thal in Maharashtra and marketing of these products throughout the country.
With a disinvestment target of Rs.30,000 crore set for the current fiscal, the government has so far mopped up just over Rs.6,900 crore through minority stake sale of its holding in a couple of PSUs.
The government has already identified 10 PSUs for disinvestment to meet the mop-up target set for 2012-13. These include NTPC, Oil India (OIL), MMTC, SAIL and BHEL.
