MOIL IPO price band at Rs 340-375, to fetch up to Rs 1,238 crore

The Centre will dilute 10 per cent stake in the country's largest manganese manufacturer, while Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments will shed 5 per cent each through the public offer that will open on November 26 and close on December one.

The issue would raise a total of Rs 1,238 crore at the upper end of the price band, including 5 per cent discount to retail investors and MOIL employees.

A meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers, chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and attended by Home Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, fixed the price band at Rs 340-375 a share, according to sources.

The initial public offer will consist of over 3.36 crore shares. MOIL has a total employee strength of 6,734 and its about 3,000 employees have already opened demat accounts.
For the half year ended September 30, the company's turnover was at Rs 635 crore as compared to Rs 430 crore in the first half of previous fiscal. Profit after tax for the first half of this year stood at Rs 330 crore against Rs 201 crore in the year-ago period.

The government, which hopes to raise Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment this fiscal, has already mopped up close to Rs 20,000 crore through divestment in PSUs Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, Engineers India, Coal India and Power Grid.

After MOIL, the follow-on public offer of state-owned Shipping Corporation is next in line. Its public offer would open on November 30 and close on December 3. This would be followed by disinvestment in Hindustan Copper, whose FPO opens in the first week of December.

The government is likely to dilute its stake in Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC and SAIL in the last quarter of the current fiscal.In 2009-10, the government had raised Rs 25,000 crore through stake sale in Oil India, NMDC, REC and NTPC.