Government to sell EIL shares at Rs 145-150 each from Feb 6

The government has set a price range of Rs 145-150 a share for the sale of a 10 per cent stake in Engineers India Ltd (EIL) starting on Thursday, aimed at garnering about Rs 500 crore.
"In connection with EIL's further public offer of 3.37 crore equity shares through an offer for sale...The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has fixed the price band of Rs 145 to Rs 150," the oil consultancy firm said in a BSE filing.
The price band was fixed during the EGoM meeting chaired by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
EIL said a discount of Rs 6 a share will be offered to retail investors and employees. The government plans to reserve 5 per cent of the offer for employees.

EIL shares gained 3.98 per cent to Rs 150.30 at the close on the BSE today, valuing the company at Rs 5,064 crore.
The offer will start on February 6 and will remain open for three days, Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae told reporters.

The Department of Disinvestment has already held overseas roadshows to attract foreign investors to the EIL stake sale.
The stake sale is being managed by ICICI Securities, IDFC and Kotak Mahindra Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services and IDBI Capital.
The government holds 80.4 per cent in the 'miniratna' public sector undertaking. In 2010, it had divested 10 per cent of its stake in EIL through an FPO.

In January last year, the government decided to go in for further disinvestment in EIL, which is a leading provider of design, engineering and project management and consultancy services for the hydrocarbon sector.
The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore in the current financial year. So far, it has raised about Rs 3,000 crore through PSU stake sales.