Government may divest only 10% stake in Coal India

State-run Coal India on Saturday said, the government may divest only 10 per cent stake in the PSU in the next fiscal, against the desired 15 per cent, as regulatory provisions bars it from reserving some shares for employees.

Also, the company said it plans to divest additional stake of about 3 per cent in the second phase, proposed for people whose land has been acquired for mining purposes.

“We may only divest 10 per cent stake. We would not be able to reserve about 2 per cent shares for the employees. The existing SEBI guidelines say you can’t give shares to subsidiaries. If you can’t give it to them, there is no point. Also, the 3 per cent stake we were looking to sell over and above the planned 10 per cent could now happen only in the second tranche,” Coal India Ltd. (CIL) CMD P.S. Bhattacharyya told reporters on the sideline of a CII summit.

While CIL officials had expressed willingness for 15 per cent divestment, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had last month said that anywhere between 10-15 per cent of government stake could be divested in the firm in the next fiscal.

A delegation comprising senior officials from CIL, the Coal Ministry and the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) are expected to meet SEBI early next month to take forward the proposed disinvestment in the company.

“We have now chalked out some road map for disinvestment. Early, next month officials from CIL, Coal Ministry and the DoD would meet SEBI officials and would deliberate on the proposed disinvestment,” he added.

The company is anticipating government approval to the proposed disinvestment by August so that it can hit the market later this year.

“We expect approval from the Cabinet by August to pave way for the initial public offer in the next financial year,” he added.

Coal India was conferred with Navratna status in October 2008 and was asked to get listed within 3 years.

Nearly for past one year, CIL has been engaged in discussions with various government agencies including Department of Disinvestment, market-regulator SEBI, Ministry of Law to expedite the process of disinvestment.