Govt to sell stake in Oil India, NTPC, 3 other PSUs

The government will sell a minority stake in the nation's biggest power producer NTPC, as well as in Oil India Ltd and three other PSUs as part of its disinvestment drive.

The Department of Disinvestment today sought bids to appoint legal advisors for sale of stake in five PSUs through an offer for sale (OFS), besides a follow on offer of the CPSE Exchange Traded Fund.

At the current market prices, the stake sale in five PSUs could fetch the exchequer around Rs 11,500 crore.

The disinvestment department plans to sell 15 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL), 10 per cent each in Oil India (OIL) and Engineers India (EIL) and 5 per cent each in NTPC and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL).

As regards the ETF, it said: "The government intends to launch a Follow-on Fund/Tap/Tranche Offer of existing Central Public Sector Enterprises Exchange Traded Fund (CPSE ETF) Scheme comprising stocks of ten listed CPSEs".

While NTPC disinvestment could garner Rs 5,724 crore, part stake sale in OIL could fetch Rs 2,723 crore. Disinvestment in BEL would fetch Rs 1,366 crore, while Rs 874 crore is expected from HCL and Rs 813 crore from EIL divestment.

The Finance Ministry is also planning to launch a revamped and retail investor-friendly CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) by October in which cash rich EPFO and NPS could park their money along with individual investors.

The government had first launched a CPSE ETF, comprising scrips of 10 PSUs, in March 2014 under which retail investors have to invest a minimum of Rs 5,000 to buy units. It had raised Rs 3,000 crore through the ETF then.

For the current fiscal, the government has set a target of raising Rs 69,500 crore through disinvestment. Of this, Rs 41,000 crore would come from sale of minority stake and Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.

The government holds 67.64 per cent stake in country's second largest explorer OIL, 74.96 per cent in NTPC, 69.37 per cent in EIL, 75.02 per cent in BEL, and 89.95 per cent in HCL.