The Centre has initiated the process of listing of two more public sector units of the Indian Railways, including Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) and RITES.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on Tuesday invited bids from merchant bankers to manage the initial public offers of the two PSUs.
Though the Request for Proposal has not indicated the stake to be sold, sources said an initial divestment of 10 per cent is likely in both PSUs. Both are fully owned by the government at present.
The government would appoint up to five merchant bankers for managing the IPO of RVNL and four for RITES. The last day for submitting bids is May 11, said DIPAM.
A part of the public offering will be reserved for employees of the company. The eligible employees and retail investors will be offered shares at a discount to the issue price.
RITES and RVNL are among the five railway PSUs that have been cleared for listing by the Union Cabinet in its meeting last week.
While RITES is in the business of engineering consultancy and project management, RVNL raises extra budgetary resources and executes projects for augmenting rail infrastructure on fast-track basis
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in the Union Budget 2017-18 announced that the government would list public sector units of Railways.