NMDC’s share sale programme for diluting 10 per cent of government’s stake at Rs 147 a share commenced today at leading bourses.
The disinvestment through the offer for sale (OFS) route will close at 3.30 p.m. and if fully sold, it would fetch Rs 5,828 crore to the cash-pressed exchequer.
Last evening, the government had set the floor price for selling NMDC’s 39,64,71,600 shares at Rs 147 per share, a 7.7 per cent discount over the firm’s closing price of Rs 159.30 apiece on the BSE.
The state-owned iron ore miner has kept one-fourth of the issue reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies. The government had 90 per cent stake in the company as on September-end.
However, no single bidder, other than mutual funds and insurance firms, would be allocated more than 25 per cent of the total offer, NMDC had said in an exchange notification earlier.
Meanwhile, the scrip plunged 1.60 per cent to Rs 156.75 a share on the BSE in the early morning trade. At 11.03 a.m., the scrip was trading down 0.19 per cent at Rs 159.
NMDC is the second disinvestment candidate in the current fiscal in which the government plans to raise Rs 30,000 crore by selling stake in around a dozen PSUs.
On November 23, it had garnered Rs 808 crore by selling 5.58 per cent of its stake in Hindustan Copper.