CIL steps up efforts for smooth IPO

With state-owned miner Coal India's initial public offering (IPO) slated to take place in another four months, the coal ministry is seemingly going all out to ensure that the process goes ahead smoothly.

Even as certain unions representing sections of Coal India (CIL) workers have raised hackles over the proposed disinvestment of the mining behemoth, coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said that he would push for a meeting between the dissenting unions and the Prime Minister as a confidence building measure.

“There is no contention but they (unions) want to meet the Prime Minister so that their workers feel confident (about the IPO). I have told the Prime Minister that the representatives want to meet him and this could take place in the next few weeks,” Jaiswal said.

He, however, asserted that “there is no problem” and that the IPO process would go ahead as planned, despite the threat of a strike by the workforce.

It is understood that two of the five major unions operating within CIL are apprehensive about the disinvestment process in the mining firm. Consequently, they have backed out of an agreement to support the listing.

This is subsequent to the coal minister and CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya brokering a deal with the unions earlier, before which all the groups were against the government's stake sale in the miner.

As for the disinvestment, the government will offload 10 per cent of its stake in the miner, of which 9 per cent will go through the IPO, which is expected to take place in August, while 1 per cent will be offered to the employees of the company. The government currently holds all the equity in CIL.

After the tepid response of the markets to the offerings made by other public sector firms such as NMDC and REC, Jaiswal remained confident that CIL would do well on the bourses. “It will not be a failure. Rather, the IPO will be a great success,” he said.

The Centre expects to make upwards of Rs 12,000 crore from the disinvestment in CIL, which is amongst the world's largest coal mining firms.