The Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry has informed the Finance Ministry about the poor response the road shows held for Indian Oil Corporation disinvestment got. Now it is up to a ministerial panel to take the final call on share dilution of the public sector company, the Secretary in the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Vivek Rae, said.
“We have given our comments (to the Department of Disinvestment). The empowered group of ministers would take the final decision,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference here.
Last month, global road shows were held for sale of a 10 per cent stake in IOC, the country's largest refiner and oil marketing company. The Government expects to raise about Rs 4,000 crore from this.
At the road shows, concerns were raised by the investor community on the subsidy burden faced by IOC for selling petroleum products at a controlled price.
With just four more months to go in the current fiscal, the IOC stake sale is important to achieve disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore. The issue was expected to hit the market by December. The Government holds a 78.92 per cent stake in the company as on June 30.
Citibank, HSBC and UBS Securities are among the five merchant bankers selected to manage the IOC share sale.