Govt to sell 10% stake in Engineers India

After a five-month lull amidst turbulent market conditions, the government is once again reviving its disinvestment process for the year. It will sell 10 per cent of its stake in Engineers India Ltd (EIL) on Friday, which is likely to fetch around Rs 692 crore to the exchequer by its closing price on Wednesday.

The disinvestment will take place through Offer for Sale (OFS) route, the company said in a regulatory filing.

"The promoter of Engineers India Ltd has submitted to BSE a copy of notice of offer for sale of 33,693,660 equity shares of the company of face value of Rs 5 each, representing 10 per cent of the total paid-up equity share capital of the company," the filing said.

The offer would take place on a separate window of the Stock Exchanges on January 29, starting 9:15 am on the offer date and shall close on the same day at 3:30 pm.

The floor price or minimum offer price for share sale would be announced on Thursday.

Shares of EIL, a state-owned engineering consultancy and EPC services provider, closed at Rs 205.40 apiece on BSE on Wednesday

The government has raised only Rs 12,700 crore through PSU disinvestments in the current fiscal so far against the budgeted target of Rs 69,500 crore.

Of this, Rs 41,000 crore was to come from minority stake sale in PSUs and another Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale. Due to volatile stock markets, the government has been able to sell stake only in four PSUs -- Indian Oil, REC, PFC and Dredging Corp.