Coal India pitches for 15 per cent disinvestment

"CIL has proposed 15 per cent disinvestment in the company to the Department of Disinvestment and the Coal Ministry," sources in the know said.

The 15 per cent disinvestment would see 10 per cent of government equity going into the proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the PSU and the rest 5 per cent would be utilised to offer stocks to employees and those who have lost land for the mines.

Out of the five per cent, 3 per cent has been proposed to be given to employees as stock option and two per cent to the land losers, the sources said.

They said the company is discussing the stake sale plan with the Department of Disinvestment in the finance ministry.

"There have been some regulatory issues on giving stock options to employees and shares to land losers. Discussions are on and CIL hopes that the proposal would soon be forwarded to the Cabinet," sources said.

They added that the company was likely to initiate mandatory steps like filing the Red Herring prospectus in July-August next year for the proposed IP0.

The Department of Disinvestment had last month sought clarification from the Coal Ministry on the proposed disinvestments.

In September, the Coal Ministry had approached the Disinvestment Department for determining the value of CIL shares ahead of the PSU's proposed disinvestment and sought the Law Ministry's opinion on certain contents of the plan.

The company was given the Navaratna status last year and was asked to get listed in the bourse before September, 2011.

The company has a paid-up equity capital of around Rs 6,316 crore. It clocked a pre-tax profit of Rs 8,738.46 crore in the last fiscal.