Govt sells 7.64% in National Fertilizers for Rs 100 cr

Share sale subscribed 1.56 times

The government today sold its 7.64% holding in National Fertilizers (NFL) through the offer for sale (OFS) route to raise about Rs 100 crore.

The 3.75 million share offering saw subscribed 1.56 times garnering 5.84 million bids. Most bids came around the floor price, which was fixed at Rs 27 per share. Over 80% of the bids came from institutional investors.

IDBI Capital Markets is acting as merchant banker for the share sale. Shares of the company today ended at Rs 2, up Rs 0.30, or 1.12%.

The centre had to divest its stake in NFL before August 8 to comply with the minimum public shareholding (MPS) requirement.

The government is looking at selling its 3.56%  its stake in Neyveli Lignite Corp through institutional placement programme (IPP). The stake is to be sold  on August 2 to four Tamil Nadu government-owned companies.

Besides this the centre is likely to transfer its holding in seven other PSUs, which have free float of less than 10%, into a special fund for meeting the MPS requirement.

The government is targetting to raise Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment during 2013-14. So far it has sold raised Rs 800 crore by selling shares in Hindustan Copper and MMTC.

Indian Oil Corporation and Coal India have been identified as the big-ticket disinvestment candidates by the government for this year's disinvestment programme.