EGoM to decide on Hindustan Copper stake sale on Tuesday

The Empowered Group of Ministers on disinvestment is headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram

The panel of ministers on disinvestment will meet on Tuesday to decide on the base price for 4.01% stake sale of Hindustan Copper (HCL) and the issue is likely to hit the markets on July 3.

 

"The meeting of the EGoM on disinvestment is scheduled to meet on July 2," an official said, adding that the stake sale would happen the day after.

 

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on disinvestment is headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

 

Currently, the government holds 94.01% stake in HCL. The sale would make the company complaint to the minimum 10% public holding norm of market regulator Sebi.

 

The sale of 4.01% stake or over 3.48 crore shares through the Offer For Sale (OFS) route could fetch around Rs 240-250 crore to the exchequer, sources said.

 

Shares of HCL closed at Rs 74.45, up 3.19% on the BSE on Friday.

 

The government had in November last year sold 5.58% stake in HCL through an OFS at an average price of Rs 156.56 apiece. The stake sale fetched Rs 808 crore to the exchequer.

 

In September 2012, the Cabinet had approved 9.5% stake sale of HCL. The government had then decided to go ahead with only one tranche of the issue and get a good price from the auction.

 

If approved by the EGoM, HCL would be the second PSU to hit the markets in the current fiscal. Earlier this month, the government raised Rs 568 crore through divesting 9.33% stake in MMTC.

 

The government plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment in the current fiscal.