SAIL slumps 6% amid report Govt could sell 5% stake by March 2020

The move is being seen as the government's last attempt at achieving its revised divestment target of Rs 65,000 crore for the current financial year (FY2019-20).

2 min read Last Updated : Feb 10 2020 | 3:00 PM IST

Shares of state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) slumped 6.1 per cent to Rs 45.65 on the BSE on Monday amid reports that the government could off-load 5 per cent of its stake in the company, through an offer for sale, which could fetch about Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer.

"We are looking at a 5 per cent stake sale via offer for sale (OFS), but we will assess investor demand in the roadshows... Officials from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and steel ministry are planning roadshows in Singapore and Hong Kong," news agency PTI reported, quoting an unnamed government official. READ REPORT HERE

The Hong Kong roadshow, however, might be called off due to coronavirus outbreak, the report added.

According to the sharehoding pattern of the company, as on December 31, 2019, government held 75 per cent stake while the rest was with public shareholders.

ALSO READ: SAIL seeks permission from Odisha, Jharkhand to auction 70 MT fines

The move is being seen as the government's last attempt at achieving its revised divestment target of Rs 65,000 crore for the current financial year (FY2019-20). So far this fiscal, Rs 34,000 crore has been mopped up from CPSE stake sale while the remaining Rs 31,000 crore has to come in by March-end.

For the quarter ended December 2019, the iron and steel products' company posted a net profit of Rs 616 crore, as against a net profit of Rs 43 crore during the corresponding period last year. It's turnover for the recently concluded quarter improved by 3 per cent o Rs 15,660 crore over the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscalof Rs 15,190 crore.

Recently, the company appointed Anirban Dasgupta, the chief executive officer, as Director (Projects and Business Planning). Dasgupta replaced G.Vishwakarma, who ceased to be the director post his superannuation on January 31, 2020.

At 9:50 am, the stock was trading 3.5 per cent lower at Rs 46.95 apiece, as against a 0.47 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A total of 9.35 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.