Ahead of the August 21 deadline, the government Thursday extended by two years the deadline for the listed public sector companies to meet the minimum public shareholding norm of 25%.
The new deadline is August 2020. The Centre issued a notification to giving effect to the extension.
The move is expected to give ample time for state-owned companies to go under the hammer. There are more than 20 listed PSU firms that are required to meet the 25% norm that Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has mandated in order to promote wider investor base in the listed state-run companies.
Among major PSU firms which are still short of the 25% public shareholding norms include Coal India, Hindustan Aeronautics, General Insurance Corp of India and Housing and Urban Development Corp (HUDCO).
The Sebi board had in June 2014 asked listed companies to offer at least 25 per cent of their equity to non-promoter shareholders.
Accordingly, the rules were notified for PSUs to achieve the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding by August 21, 2017, later extended by a year.
In the current fiscal the government aims to garner Rs 80,000 crore through PSU disinvestment, against Rs 1 lakh crore collected last fiscal.
List of PSUs that need to meet 25% public shareholding
Coal India Ltd
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd
General Insurance Corp of India Ltd
KIOCL Ltd
Housing & Urban Development Corp Ltd
SJVN Ltd
ITI Ltd
Bharat Dynamics Ltd
MMTC Ltd
RITES Ltd
India Tourism Development Corp Ltd
Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd
Andrew Yule & Co Ltd
State Trading Corp of India Ltd
Hindustan Photo Films Mfg Co Ltd
Scooters India Ltd
Hindustan Copper Ltd
Madras Fertilisers Ltd
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