The much–awaited follow-on public offer (FPO) of State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) may now hit the market in first fortnight of July.
“No specific date can be committed. It will depend on the date of filing of prospectus with SEBI.
“But the indicative period for the issue would be in the first or second week of July,” official sources said.
The Government is looking to sell a five per cent stake of ONGC in the FPO.
At Thursday's price of Rs 309 a share, the Government would mop up over Rs 13,000 crore from the stake sale.
Post offer, the government stake in ONGC would come down to 69.14 per cent from the current 74.14 per cent.
Hiccups
Bank of America Corp, Nomura Holdings, HSBC Holdings Plc, JM Financial Services, Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley are managing the ONGC's FPO.
The share sale was originally planned to happen in 2010-11 but was deferred to April 5 as the company did not have adequate number of independent directors on its board to meet the SEBI's listing norm.
Recently, Power Finance Corporation (PFC) had announced that it would come with a FPO, which will hit the market on May 10. Indications are also that SAIL's follow-on public offering will hit the market in June, ahead of the ONGC issue slated for July.
The Government is looking to mop up Rs 40,000 crore from divestment in the current fiscal. It had mobilised about Rs 22,000 crore from disinvestment during 2009-10.