It's a Diwali gift from CIL to investors: Coal min

With the fabulous maiden run of Coal India Ltd (CIL) on the bourses, the government today lauded the investors who posed faith in the company.

"It's a Diwali gift from Coal India Ltd to the investor community across the globe," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told PTI in an interview after CIL scrip closed about 40 per cent up on the bourses at its debut.

The Minister said that the world's largest coal producer has strong fundamentals and the investor community is aware of its bullish future.

"Besides reaping profit by investing in CIL, an investor who participated in the IPO, also served the nation, as Rs 15,200 crore proceeds of the public offer would be used in development activities," he said.

The four-day public offer of Coal India was launched during Durga Puja festivities, from October 18 to October 21, and the company hit the market a day before Diwali on November 4.

The company yesterday closed on the Bombay Stock Exchange at around 342 a share as compared to the issue price of 245 a share, a jump of nearly 40 per cent.

Investors in Coal India's mega-public issue grew richer by a whopping Rs 61,489 crore after the coal major made a big-bang debut on the bourses.

At the end of the first day, total market capitalisation of the coal behemoth stood at Rs 2,16,240.73 crore. This was Rs 61,489 crore higher than its valuation of Rs 1,54,750.92 crore on the basis of the IPO issue price.

As a result, CIL is now the fourth most valued Indian firm, behind only Reliance Industries, ONGC and SBI.

On the outlook, Jaiswal expressed confidence on the company's future prospects and maintained that CIL is here to break all records.

"Coal India is actually Gold India for the general investor community, stay with it," Jaiswal added.