The government on Monday said it will kickstart its ambitious Rs 30,000 crore disinvestment programme with stake sale in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited this month.
“We have lined up all the cases for the next six months. The first case (RINL) is coming up sometime this month,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters at the Economic Editors’ Conference here.
The Rs 2,500—crore initial public offering (IPO) of the state-run RINL has been deferred twice since the filing of the draft documents with the market regulator Sebi on May 18.
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An Empowered Group of Ministers is likely to meet on Tuesday to decide on the date and pricing of the IPO, a source said.
The IPO is scheduled to hit the market on October 16.
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“The committee, at its meeting today, will consider the price band for the initial public offering (IPO) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) to recommend the same to an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) for fixing the band,” a source said.
Apart from the ministry and DoD officials, the meeting will be attended by top officials of the state—run steel maker and two merchant bankers for the issue.
Following the announcement of a slew of reforms starting September 14, the BSE index, Sensex, had zoomed 2.56 per cent to nearly 19,000, as on October 5.
This is expected to provide a sufficient cushion to the committee to fix the price band at a higher level, source said.
The RINL issue, in which government’s 10 per cent stake or 48.90 crore shares would be diluted, would mark the kick—off the government’s disinvestment process for the current fiscal. It is likely to contribute Rs 2,500 crore to the overall Rs 30,000 crore disinvestment target for 2012—13.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters at the Economic Editors’ Conference here this morning, “We have lined up all the cases for the next six months. The first case (RINL) is coming up sometime this month.”
RINL is the second largest state—owned steel maker in the country producing three million tonnes per annum (mtpa) at its lone facility at Visakhapatnam. The capacity is being raised to 6.3 mtpa in the current fiscal.
The company has to bring out IPO before November to retain its Navratna status. RINL got the status on November 16, 2010, subject to its getting listed in two years from the date of acquiring the status.