Govt fixes PowerGrid issue price at Rs 90 a share

The government today fixed the issue price of PowerGrid's follow-on public offer at Rs 90 per share, the upper end of the price band, a rate which will fetch the exchequer Rs 7,575 crore.

"The issue price has been fixed at Rs 90 per share. The government will raise over Rs 7,575 crore," a source said.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, set the issue price at Rs 90 per share, a discount of over 10 per cent from its last closing price of Rs 99.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Central transmission utility PowerGrid FPO, priced at Rs 85-90 a share, was oversubscribed 14.83 times, generating a demand worth a staggering Rs 1.12 lakh crore for 84.17 crore (84,17,68,246) shares on offer.

The FPO, which opened on November 9, has garnered total demand for 1,248.48 crore shares against 84.17 crore shares on offer, according to the data available on the National Stock Exchange website.

The government is divesting 10 per cent of its 86.36 per cent stake and the company has raised equal percentage of fresh equity through the offer. Employees and retail investors will be given equity stocks at 5 per cent discount on the issue price.

The mega offer came as a boost to government's disinvestment programme that aims to garner Rs 40,000 crore in this fiscal.

PowerGrid public offer would be followed by Hindustan Copper, Manganese Ore India Ltd and SAIL among a few others in this fiscal.