Nalco floor price fixed at Rs 40 per share

Giving a steep discount of nearly 10 per cent, the government on Thursday fixed the floor price as Rs 40 a share for up to 10 per cent stake sale in aluminium major National Aluminium Company of India (Nalco), which would fetch a minimum of Rs 1,031 crore.

The offer for sale is scheduled to be held on Friday through a special window on BSE and NSE.

“With reference to the earlier announcement dated March 13, 2013 regarding Offer for Sale of shares by promoter, the President of India... has now informed BSE that the floor price for the sale... shall be... Rs 40 per equity share,” Nalco said in a filing to the BSE.

Though the announcement of the base price for the share sale was made on Thursday, the decision on it was taken on Friday itself by an Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The base price of Rs 40 a share for Nalco is at a discount of 9.61 per cent over today’s closing price of company’s shares at Rs 44.25 on the BSE.

Nalco shares fell nearly 5 per cent on the bourses on Thursday amid the buzz that the government is likely to fix the base price at a discount of 10 per cent or above.

On BSE, company shares fell 4.43 per cent to close at Rs 44.25 apiece, while on the NSE, the scrip closed at Rs 44, down 4.56 per cent.