Centre to shed 10% stake in Coal India & Hind Copper

The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Briefing reporters, Home Minister P Chidambaram said “disinvestment of CIL will be made through book building process in the domestic market. One per cent of equity will be offered to employees of CIL and its eight subsidiaries.”  The CCEA has also decided to allow 5 per cent price concession to retail investors to encourage greater public ownership of public sector companies. After disinvestment government’s shareholding in the company would come down to 90 per cent.

At present, the paid up equity capital of Coal India is Rs 6316.36 crore and the government holds 100 per cent of equity in the company.  The CCEA also approved disinvestment of 10 per cent paid up equity capital of HCL out of government’s shareholding along with issue of fresh equity of equal size in the domestic market.
Reservation of shares for employees of HCL will be on a discount of 5 per cent, which will also be available to retail investors as per Sebi guidelines.

Currently, the government holds 99.9 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper and after stake sale it would drop to 81 per cent.  The stake sale is estimated to raise Rs 4,000 crore. Money raised through stake sale in HCL would be used for capital expenditure, Chidambaram said. In the current fiscal 2010-11 the government proposes to raise Rs 40,000 crore through PSU disinvestment. The government is contemplating to sell its stake in blue chip PSUs like Indian Oil Corporation, MMTC, SAIL and Shipping Corporation of India in the current financial year. During 2009-10 the government raised Rs 25,000 crore through PSU disinvestment through stake sale in PSUs like Oil India, NMDC, REC and NTPC.

The PSU disinvestment is likely to get a major boost this fiscal with the recent Cabinet decision that all listed profitable PSUs should have a public holding of at least 10 per cent and all profitable unlisted Central PSUs should be listed. As per these criteria as many as 60 PSUs are eligible for disinvestment.