Delhi 29, March 2022: The central government to sell 1.5% stake in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to raise over 3,000 crore rupees through an offer for sale of 94,352,094 equity shares, including an equal number of shares in a green shoe option.
India plans to sell as much as 1.5% stake in state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp., via an offer for sale starting Wednesday, according to an exchange filing. The floor price for the offer is set at 159 rupees apiece. The government aims to raise 30 billion rupees ($397 million) from the share sale, which is for two days beginning Wednesday for non-retail investors and Thursday for retail.
The divestment, before the close of the financial year on March 31, comes after the government deferred an initial public offer for the country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corp. to next year due to market volatility.
In its Feb. 1 budget, the government slashed its asset sale target to 780 billion rupees from 1.75 trillion rupees budgeted earlier. It has, however, raised only 124 billion rupees so far.
The proceeds will go to the government kitty which has been well below the ₹78,000 revised target set for FY 22. So far, proceeds from disinvestment stand at ₹12,423.67 crore, while those from dividends stand at ₹55,972.96 crore.
ICICI Securities, Citigroup Global Market, Kotak Mahindra Capital, HSBC Securities and UBS Securities have been appointed as seller brokers.
A minimum of 25% of the shares will be reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies, 10% for retail investors, and 0.075% for employees. Retail investors and employees will be able to buy at lowest or cut off price, according to the document issued by ONGC.
The offer shall take place during trading hours on a separate window of the stock exchanges on March 30, 2022 commencing at 9:15 a.m. and shall close at 3:30 p.m, for non-retail investors.
