Govt to buy IFCI preferential shares to up stake to 50%

State-run dedicated infra lender IFCI today said the government is in the process of buying preferential shares from existing shareholders to increase its stake in the paid-up capital to above 50 per cent.
"If you take equity and preference shares, the Government holding comes slightly below 50 per cent. The Government is trying to increase its stake. And it is in the process of acquiring some of the preference shares so that its stake increases," IFCI Chief Executive and Managing Director Malay Mukherjee said here.
Currently, the Governments stake in IFCI going by the paid-up capital, including both the equity capital and preference shares, is around 48 per cent which will go above 50 per cent with this exercise, he said.

Mukherjee was speaking after launching a Rs 2,500- crore non-convertible debentures (NCD) issue of the infra lender. The public issue has a green shoe option under which the company can retain subscriptions up to Rs 2,000 crore.
Under the offering, IFCI will be issuing secured redeemable non-convertible debentures of face value of Rs 1,000 each. The NCDs have a tenure of up to 10 years and carry a coupon rate of up to 9.90 per cent per annum.
The first tranche of the issue opens for subscription on October 20 and closes on November 21, it said.