NBCC stake sale likely in last week of March

The government will come out with the initial share sale offer of the state-owned construction company NBCC to offload its 10% stake in the firm in the last week of March.

"The meeting on pricing [of NBCC stake sale] is likely to happen on March 22. The issue is likely in the end week of March," Disinvestment secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan told reporters here.

On the amount to be raised from stake-sale, Khan said it would be small and definitely less than Rs 1,000 crore.

The NBCC disinvestment will be the last public offering by the government in the current financial year which ends on March 31.

Khan said in the current fiscal the government will raise a little less than Rs 14,000 crore through disinvestment as against the budget target of Rs 40,000 crore.

The Centre has raised Rs 1,145 crore through stake sale in Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rs 12,767 crore through auction of its share in oil major ONGC.

When asked if there is any possibility of another stake sale through the auction route in the current fiscal, Khan said, "there is very little time left for it."

He further said, "we will analyse the auction process and then decide on the next company," and indicated that in future the government may auction its stake on only one stock exchange.

In case of ONGC, which faced technical glitches, the auction was held on the BSE as well as National Stock Exchange (NSE).