No immediate OFS of Coal India: DIPAM official

Any further Offer For Sale (OFS) in Coal India to raise funds is currently not on the radar and will be decided later, depending on the market, sources said.

"Coal India has met the MPS (minimum public shareholding) target. To that extent there is no obligation for further sale. Rest will be decided later, depending on the market situation," sources at the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) directive to all listed companies is to keep the public shareholding at 25 per cent.

Coal India shares were trading at Rs 253.5, down 2.53 per cent at 2.47 p.m. As per BSE data, promoter (government) holds 70.96 per cent as on March 2019 and the public holds 29.04 per cent, with the highest public shareholder LIC P&GS Fund holding 10.94 per cent.

Coal India OFS for three per cent equity yielded Rs 5,266 crore to the government. While the retail portion subscribed 156.33 per cent, the non-retail portion subscribed 106.33 per cent. Over-subscription of 6.33 per cent was retained.

The disinvestment proceeds last fiscal crossed Rs 85,000 crore against a revised estimate of Rs 80,000 crore. For the second year in a row, DIPAM exceeded the revised estimates.

During the current financial year, DIPAM has realised the proceeds through 28 transactions. It said that disinvestment of Air India will be attempted again this year after no bid was received last fiscal.

In February, DIPAM said NITI Aayog has submitted the fifth list of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), profitable as well as non-profitable, which can go in for a strategic sale. This takes the total number of CPSEs identified for strategic disinvestment to 35.

Coal India OFS issues have been raised from time to time as the government has a daunting task of meeting the disinvestment target of Rs 90,000 crore.

In the interim Budget, the government had said as many as 57 CPSEs are now listed with a total market capitalisation of over Rs 13 lakh crore.

The government received over Rs 1 lakh crore from disinvestment proceeds during 2017-18 against a target of Rs 80,000 crore. So far, DIPAM has done Rs 2,357 crore disinvestment proceeds.

(Anjana Das can be contacted at anjana.d@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )