Government to sell 5 pct in Power Finance on Monday

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will sell a 5 percent stake in state-run Power Finance Corp Ltd on Monday in a stock market transaction that could raise up to $267 million for the central government, as per the current market value.

New Delhi will sell about 66 million shares of the company and the base price for the auction will be set on Saturday, said a government notice to the exchanges on Friday. Power Finance shares ended 0.2 percent lower on Friday at 259.55 rupees.

The Power Finance share offering is part of the government's budget target to raise as much as $11 billion from divestment of its stake in state-run companies. The government has missed its divestment target for the last five years in a row.

The proceeds from the asset sale programme are critical for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's plan to narrow the fiscal deficit to 3.9 percent of gross domestic product in the 2015/16 fiscal year that began in April.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma; Editing by Anand Basu)