Govt to fix issue price for CIL shares today

The issue price of Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) initial share sale will be decided tomorrow by an Empowered Group of Ministers, paving the way for public trading of the company on the stock exchanges on November 4.

“The meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers has been postponed to tomorrow because of the preoccupation of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who came back from South Korea today after attending a G-20 meeting,” a government official said.

Mukherjee heads the EGoM, which also comprises Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Home Minister Pranab Mukherjee, among others.

The four-day initial public offer of CIL, which closed on October 21, made history by getting oversubscribed 15.17 times and generating bids worth Rs 2,35,290 crore. It is expected to fetch the government over Rs 15,000 crore, the largest sum ever garnered in India through a share sale.

The IPO, which had a price band of Rs 225-245 per share, generated total demand for over 960.36 crore shares, though only 63.16 crore equities were on offer.

The government has sold 10 per cent of its stake in the world’s largest coal producer through the public offer. Prior to the IPO, CIL was a fully government-owned entity.

CIL is the largest coal producer in the world, with 64 billion tonnes of reserves as of April, 2010.

Analysts said the huge response to the CIL issue will boost the government’s disinvestment plans and help speed up stake sale projects in the coming days.

The blockbuster share sale of the PSU is likely to be followed by similar public offers from Power Grid, Hindustan Copper, Manganese Ore India Ltd and SAIL, among a few others, this financial year.

Till the CIL share sale, Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Power’s IPO in January, 2008, which raked in Rs 11,700 crore, was considered the country’s most successful public issue.