IPOs and buybacks go missing from 2021-22 disinvestment drive

Axis Bank, NMDC, and ONGC helped generate the maximum disinvestment proceeds for the year 2021-22. Meanwhile, offer for sale (OFS) remained the most preferred mode for disinvestment. 

OFS is a mode to divest stake in a listed company using the stock exchange platform. Including the recently-concluded ONGC OFS, the total mop-up by way of disinvestment in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) was Rs 16,500 crore — less than a fifth of the Rs 78,000 crore the government was eyeing. 

The Rs 64,500-crore shortfall was on account of delay in the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). The government didn’t do a single IPO during the year.

In FY21, the government had launched three IPOs: Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, IRFC, and RailTel Corp. Also, the number of buybacks dropped from seven in FY21 to just one in FY22. The total government had mopped up was Rs 32,845 crore in FY21, double that of FY22.