The Central government has decided that there will be no anchor investors for the initial public offer of Coal India Ltd (CIL) which is due to open on October 18. The CIL share sale was the first instance where the plans were made to rope in large domestic and overseas investors who would have acted as anchors to the issue.
Sources connected with the disinvestment process told The Hindu that the government felt that it was not necessary to have anchor investors as the process was not very transparent. “It was rather discretionary.”
Moreover, the response to the issue generating interest among domestic and overseas investors, as is evident in the road shows currently on overseas (a domestic round has also taken place), has begun giving confidence to CIL as well as the government that the issue, which may well turn out to be the country's largest share sale, will generate good response from large corporates as well as retail investors. The centre felt that in the current buoyant situation in the capital market, it was not necessary to rope in anchor investors as the market conditions were good and were expected to stay that way till Diwali at least.
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