Divestment only in fair market, says Pranab

“... as and when I find the market is favourable and I can get good money, then I will go for disinvestment. I am not going to list out the number of PSUs (for disinvestment), indicating their percentage of share that would be offloaded in the market, over which period of time. These things we are not going to tell,” he told PTI.

“I do not know whether the PSUs were over crowding the market. Whatever we are offering (is) to the public at large. OIL (Oil India Limited) has been subscribed to by a large number of PSUs and the same is (true for) NHPC,” Mukherjee said when asked whether the spate of disinvestment could overcrowd the markets.

Pricing of public offers

At the same time he debunked suggestions that pricing of public offers so far during the current financial year was aggressive and led to these shares not getting a good response in the secondary market.
The government recently offloaded its shares in the Oil India Limited (OIL) and NHPC and proposes to divest equity in another power major NTPC and Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam  On pricing shares of NHPC and OIL Mukherjee said “so far the pricing is concerned, we go by the advise of the consultants and after detailed discussions with administrative ministries, Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment et al,” he added.

Mukherjee said the government will take a decision on timing of offloading and pricing of shares of NTPC and SJVN after watching the market conditions.