Crawford Bayley appointed as legal advisor for SAIL FPO

Five leading legal companies -- Amarchand & Mangaldas, Crawford Bayley, Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates and Fox Mandal -- were in the race for the job. "Crawford Bayley & Co has been appointed to advise us on the FPO," SAIL Chairman C S Verma told PTI.

All the five firms had pitched for order to a panel comprising officials from SAIL, the steel ministry and the Department of Disinvestment. The FPO is likely be launched in January-February 2010.

Crawford will manage the first phase of the 20 per cent share sale programme, under which the government plans to divest five per cent of its stake in the company, while the steel giant will issue additional shares equivalent to a five per cent stake.

Another 10 per cent will be sold under the second phase of the FPO, the timing of which will be decided later. The two-phased FPO may help raise a total of Rs 16,000 crore, Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh had earlier said.

At present, the government holds a stake of a little over 85 per cent in SAIL and post-FPO, its equity in the company is expected to go down to about 69 per cent. SAIL wants to part-fund its Rs 70,000 crore expansion programme with the proceeds from the share sale, while for the government, the stake dilution will help attain the disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for this fiscal.