HAL to hit market during H2 FY'15; DRHP by Sept

Govt has already named 4 merchant bankers--SBI Cap, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Axis Capital-- for managing 10% HAL stake sale

The disinvestment department is working on launching the equity sale of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in the second half of the present fiscal, which will be the first IPO of a state-owned firm after a gap of at least two-and-a-half years.

“We are working on the DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus) for HAL. We plan to file it with SEBI by September,” a government official said.

The initial share sale offer to offload 10 per cent stake in the state-run defence equipment maker is expected to hit the markets only in the second half of the present fiscal-ending March, 2015.

The Initial Public Offer of HAL would be the first such government share sale since April 2012 when the government came out with IPO of NBCC.

In November 2012, the Cabinet had approved offloading a 10 per cent stake or 12 million equity shares in HAL through an IPO.

The government has already appointed four merchant bankers — SBI Cap, Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Axis Capital — for managing the HAL stake sale.

A ‘Navaratna’ company, HAL provides maintenance and overhaul services of aircraft.

It had a paid-up capital of Rs 120.50 crore, comprising 120.5 million shares of face value of Rs 10 each at the end of March, 2011. Presently, the company is fully-owned by the government.

The stake sale in HAL will help the government move towards the disinvestment target of Rs 36,925 crore in 2014—15.