9,000 CIL employees filing for demat accounts everyday

As many as 9,000 employees of Coal India (CIL) are opening depository accounts everyday to reap the benefits of about Rs 12,000-crore IPO, which would reserve 1 per cent shares for them, a company official said today.

"Everyday around 7,000-9,000 employees of CIL are completing the process of opening the demat account with government-owned banks like SBI, United Bank of India, Union Bank of India," a CIL official told PTI.

For trading in stock markets an investor needs a demat account where shares are kept in dematerialised form or electronic form.

The PSU has about 4 lakh employees. CIL plans to launch its initial public offer by September-October this year to offload 10 per cent of government's equity in the company. The government holds 100 per cent stake in the world's largest coal producer.

CIL will reserve 1 per cent of its equity in the IPO for its employees, who are expected to get the shares at a minimum discount of 5 per cent.

"Almost 85 per cent of the mine workers now have a pan card. This is the first step towards opening their demat accounts," the official added.

In May, CIL Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya had said that the company would facilitate creation of demat accounts for its workforce to encourage their participation in the share sale.

Earlier Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had said that the IPO could fetch about Rs 12,000 crore to the exchequer. The Cabinet had last month cleared the disinvestment proposal of the coal major.

CIL in the last fiscal produced 431.5 million tonnes of coal while the county's coal output stood at 531.5 million tonnes.