Govt to raise Rs 4.4 billion through Midhani's IPO by divesting 26% stake

State-owned Mishra Dhatu Nigam (Midhani) will be launching its Rs 4.4 billion initial public offering(IPO) next week. Through the IPO, government will be divesting 26 per cent stake in the company. The price band for the offering has been fixed in the range of Rs 87-90 apiece. At the upper price band, Midhani will be valued at Rs 16.86 billion.

Retail investors and employees of Midhani will get a discount of Rs 3 per share over the issue price. SBI Caps and IDBI Bank are the book running managers for the issue.

Midhani makes special steel and super alloys for defence, aerospace and power generation purposes. It was started in 1973 to help India achieve self-reliance in alloys of strategic importance.The alloy marker reported a net profit of Rs 273 million for six months that ended on September 2017 and revenue of Rs 2.1 billion.

Midhani's IPO is a part of the central government's divestment policy and the proceeds will help the government in maintaining its fiscal target for the financial year. Interestingly, this is the third IPO to be launched in last one week.

The IPO of Bharat Dynamics opened on Tuesday and is currently open for public subscription. State-owned aerospace firm Hindustan Aeronautics' Rs 44.8 billion IPO will also open for public subscription next week.

The government has raised Rs 927 billion from various stake sales during the fiscal, data compiled from Dipam showed.