Steel Authority of India Ltd's follow-on public offer (FPO) is likely to be pushed to the next financial year.
“There is not enough time left this fiscal. We are still assessing the market situation and we will come out with the FPO as soon as the market conditions seem fine,” said Mr Beni Prasad Verma, Minister of State for Steel, at the sidelines of a FICCI conference on steel usage in infrastructure.
Delays with the FPO arose due to the Steel Ministry's tiff with four merchant bankers handling SAIL's FPO — SBI Capital, Kotak Mahindra, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.
The four merchant bankers were also the handling the Tata Steel FPO which concluded on January 21. The Ministry had asked for an undertaking from the bankers with a guarantee that there is no clash of interests and the bankers are committed to SAIL.
The steel maker though is ready with its red herring prospectus.
“We are ready with the red herring prospectus, but not yet filed. The board still has to clear it. We will file it when market conditions are right,” said Mr C. S. Verma, Chairman, SAIL.
SAIL's FPO, likely to mop-up Rs 4,000 crore, is crucial for Government's target of raising Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment.
In the current fiscal so far, it has garnered around Rs 23,000 crore through divestment.