Four PR firms in race for MOIL's IPO

Adfactors Advertising and Concept Communication are among the four public relations firms that are in the fray to bag the contract for handling Manganese Ore India (MOIL) IPO, expected to hit market in December this year.

Concept Communication, Raka Advertising, Sobhagya Advertising Service and Adfactors Advertising are scheduled to make presentations in this regard before the disinvestment department on Wednesday, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

The Centre as well as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh would offload a total 20 per cent stake in Manganese Ore, the Cabinet approval for which is expected soon.

The Centre will offload 10 per cent of its stake in the company while Maharashtra and MP will dilute 5 per cent each. Earlier, only the Centre was considering selling 10 per cent stake.

The Centre holds 81.57 per cent in the mini-ratna entity, while Maharashtra and MP hold holds 9.62 and 8.81 per cent stake, respectively.

The government has already shortlisted IDBI Capital, Edelweiss Capital and JP Morgan to manage the public issue.

Manganese Ore operates 10 mines, six of which are located in Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in Balaghat district of MP. It had a net profit of Rs 240 crore in 2009-10, while its networth stood at Rs 1,587 crore in FY10.

The government aims to raise Rs 40,000 crore through divestment this fiscal. So far, divestment in Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam has fetched over Rs 1,000 crore, while the government mopped up nearly the same amount from 10 per cent stake sale in Engineers India FPO.

The government is likely to sell its stake in 10 PSUs, including Coal India, MMTC, SAIL and Hindustan Copper, this fiscal. Last fiscal it had raised Rs 25,000 crore through stake sale in Oil India, NMDC, REC and NTPC.