Govt gears up for divestment drive

Offers for sale, IPOs, ETF and mergers and acquisitions planned to raise Rs 72,500 cr

After a brisk start to the Centre’s 2017-18 disinvestment programme, the finance ministry’s Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) has lined up a healthy pipeline to meet a highly ambitious target of Rs 72,500 crore.

On tap are a number of stake sales through the offer-for-sale route, several market debuts of defence and rail public sector units, a new exchange-traded fund (ETF), mergers and acquisitions in the public sector undertaking (PSU) space, and buybacks by cash-rich companies.

On Friday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled the Centre’s new central public sector enterprises (CPSE) ETF, comprising 22 public sector companies and private