The Steel Ministry is not in a hurry to launch the follow-on public offer of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), said the Steel Minister, Mr Beni Prasad Verma on Friday.
“The SAIL FPO has been postponed as the market was down. We cannot forecast when this will improve and when the offer will hit the market,” said Mr Verma.
“The urgency, if any, is of the Finance Ministry's and not ours,” he added. The FPO was slated to hit the market by the middle of February. However, it got delayed due to some issues with book running lead managers (BRLMs) and subsequently sharp decline in the stock market.
The delay in FPO has also affected government's share sale programme for the current fiscal. The Government has missed its target of Rs 40,000-crore fund generation programme through disinvestment in the state-owned firms and it could only raise just above Rs 22,000 crore so far. SAIL Chairman, Mr C.S. Verma, in February, had said the FPO could hit the market early next fiscal.
Commenting on the steel prices, the Minister said, since the export duty on iron ore has been increased, the price of ore would come down and as a result, the price of steel would also come down in the domestic market.