DoD meets SteelMin, merchant bankers on SAIL divestment

Kickstarting the process of 5 per cent stake sale in SAIL, the Disinvestment Department on Monday held a meeting with merchant bankers and steel ministry officials to move ahead with it.

“It was a preliminary meeting to discuss the process. No timeline has been decided as yet,” sources said.

The sale of 5 per cent stake or about 20.65 crore shares at the current market price would fetch the exchequer about Rs 1,900 crore. SAIL shares on Monday closed at Rs 93.10, down 0.85 per cent on the BSE.

Government holds 80 per cent stake in SAIL. A five per cent dilution would help the government meet the minimum 25 per cent public shareholding norm of market regulator Sebi. In the interim Budget, the government budgeted to raise Rs 36,925 crore through stake sale in PSUs in the current fiscal. SAIL, with a market capitalisation of over Rs 38,450 crore, would be among the big-ticket divestments.

The Cabinet under the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had approved divestment of 10.82 per cent stake in SAIL in 2012-13 fiscal. The government had since appointed merchant bankers for the share sale, which include SBI Caps, Kotak Mahindra and Deutsche Bank.

However, later it trimmed the size of stake sale to 5.82 per cent, thereby raising over Rs 1,500 crore in March 2013.

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex has gained 12 per cent so far in this financial year. The DoD has already identified companies for stake sale which include 10 per cent in Coal India, 11.6 per cent stake in NHPC and 5 per cent each in REC and PFC.

 Besides, it will also go ahead with the long-pending sale of its residual stake in Hindustan Zinc and Balco.