The ONGC share price has, in the last 3 months, been converging to the band at which the offer is expected to be sold to the public - between Rs 630 and Rs 670 with the upper limit being for institutional bidders and the lower limit for retail bidders and employees. | |
| ONGC has reserved 10 per cent each for employees and its shareholders as well as those of MRPL, excluding of course the government of India and Indian Oil Corporation. From around the Rs 620 levels in December last year, the price went up to more than Rs 900 towards the beginning of January. |
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| While nobody is willing to go on record, it is expected that the discount in the case of retail investors might be higher than the 5 per cent which was announced for IPCL or any of the other issues. |
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| Merchant bankers in the know said that it was necessary to offer the shares at a lower price otherwise it would be difficult to attract retail investors to the issue. As it is, most of the bidding is expected to come from the institutions and non-retail, non-institutional bidders. |
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| Under the Sebi guidelines, not less than 25 per cent of the shares on offer are to be allotted to retail bidders (those bidding up to an amount of Rs 50,000). |
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| "But if the retail subscription is less than the target 25 per cent of the offer, then the unsubscribed portion will go to the other categories of investors," merchant bankers said. |
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