Bharat Electronics falls 3% as its 5% stake sale begins today

Sale of 11.1 million shares will be at a minimum price of Rs 1,498/shr, 4% discount to Feb 20 price

Shares of Bharat Electronics fell as much as 3.2% to Rs 1,510 during the early morning trade as government will begin to sell its 5% stake in the company today.

 

The sale of 11.1 million shares will be at a minimum price of Rs 1,498 apiece, 4% discount to Feb 20 closing price of BEL on BSE. The stake sale is expected to raise about Rs 1,600 crore.

 

At 10:06 am, the stock was trading 2.2% lower at Rs 1,525 on BSE Sensex. It has reached a high and low of Rs 1,527 and Rs 1,510 respectively. The scrip last reached it 52-week high of Rs 1,624.30 on January 30, 2017 and 52 week low of Rs 1,009 on March 1, 2016.

 

The share sale will be carried out through the offer-for-sale (OFS) mechanism, will remain open for two days – non-retail and institutional investors can bid on Tuesday, while retail investors will bid on Wednesday Retail investors will be given a discount of 5% on the cut off price of the shares and 20% of the offer size is also reserved for them.

 

The government currently holds 74.41% stake in BEL, which has a market cap of Rs 34,843.5 crore. It had sold 10% in MOIL in January 2017 for Rs 480 crore, 15% in NBCC to mobilise Rs 2,200 crore in October 2016, 2016, 7% in Hindustan Copper to raise Rs 400 crore in September 2016 and 11.36% in NHPC to garner Rs 2,716 crore in April 2016.