The Centre will divest equity in National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) in the second half of the current fiscal, while disinvestment in big public sector companies such as SAIL and ONGC is likely to happen in next two months, Disinvestment Secretary Sumit Bose said here on Tuesday.
Mr. Bose, who was addressing a press conference to announce the Power Finance Corporation's further public offer (FPO), said the government would meet its target of Rs.40,000 crore from disinvestment in the current fiscal, as announced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech this year.
“We are beginning with PFC and next month we will do FPO of SAIL, followed by disinvestment of 5 per cent in ONGC in July. NBCC and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam will come up in the later half of the current fiscal,” Mr. Bose said.
On the issue of disinvestment of Hindustan Copper that has been pending since last year, he said: “They (the company) are taking certain investment decisions in new mines. As soon as that is completed, we will take a call on time of the issue.”
The government is likely to fetch Rs.7,000-8,000 crore from SAIL's offer, while another Rs.13,000 crore will come from disinvestment in ONGC.
From the PFC offer, the government is likely to garner over Rs.1,100 crore. Besides, there would be a 15 per cent fresh equity sale worth over Rs.3,300 crore.
The government has proposed a disinvestment target of Rs.95,000 crore from the sale of shares in public sector companies in the next three fiscals, including Rs.40,000 crore in the current fiscal. In 2010-11, the government had raised Rs.22,400 crore through disinvestment in PSU companies by coming out with three IPOs and three FPOs.
