ONGC FPO opens Mar 15

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s Rs 13,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO) is expected to open on March 15. This was decided today, at a meeting attended by disinvestment secretary Sumit Bose and petroleum secretary S Sundareshan, among others.

“The first road show for the FPO will be held on February 2 in Chennai, while the offer is expected to hit the markets on March 15,” said a government official.

The Union cabinet had on December 1 last year approved sale of five per cent government stake in ONGC, the nation’s highest profit earning firm.

Last week, the government had appointed Bank of America Corp, Nomura Holdings, HSBC Holdings Plc, JM Financial Services, Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley to handle the FPO.

After the offer, government shareholding in ONGC would come down to 69.14 per cent from the current 74.14 per cent.

Officials said the prospectus for the FPO would be filed around mid-February, before which five more independent directors would be appointed to the ONGC board, to meet the listing requirement of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

ONGC has six functional directors, besidesthe chairman and managing director. It also has two government-appointed nominee directors, taking the total strength to nine.

There are four independent directors and five more are needed, under the Sebi rule.

As a precursor to the share sale, ONGC will split equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 each into two shares of Rs 5 each. It will also issue a free share to every shareholder.