Riding on strong demand from retail and institutional buyers, the government's 5 per cent stake sale in power sector lender PFC was lapped up by investors, fetching about Rs 1,600 crore to the exchequer.
Despite a steep decline in broader markets, the offer for sale (OFS) for 6.60 crore Power Finance Corp (PFC) shares received bids for 15.42 crore shares worth Rs 3,747 crore.
The OFS finally got subscribed 2.34 times, making it the second successful disinvestment of current fiscal.
"Today Nifty showed its steepest fall since 2011 and there was an Asian market collapse and China market too collapsed considerably... Despite that we managed to have a successful offering. We got bids worth Rs 3,747 crore," Disinvestment Secretary Aradhana Johri told reporters here.
Although Johri did not give an exact amount that would come to the exchequer, she said: "I do not visualise anything very different from what we indicated earlier".
At a floor price of Rs 254 apiece, selling 6.6 crore shares, the government is expected to get over Rs 1,600 crore.
The sale saw robust demand from retail buyers with bids coming in for 5.92 crore shares, as against 1.32 crore reserved for them. The portion for retail investors, who also got 5 per cent price discount, was subscribed 4.5 times.
Institutional investors bid for 9.49 crore shares, representing 1.80 times of the 5.28 crore shares on offer.
The floor price of Rs 254 a share was at a discount of 2.14 per cent over Friday's closing price of Rs 259.55.
Shares of PFC closed at Rs 254.05, down 2.12 per cent over previous close, tracking the broader benchmark Sensex which fell nearly 2 per cent on fears of government curbs on investments through P-Notes.
PFC is the second PSU to be divested in the current fiscal under the government's disinvestment programme. In April, the government had sold 5 per cent stake in REC for Rs 1,550 crore.
The Department has Rs 69,500-crore target from PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal, of which Rs 41,000 crore would come from minority stake sale and Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.
Of the Rs 3,747 crore worth bids received, Johri said, Rs 2,414 crore has come from institutional buyers, while Rs 1,510 crore from retail bidders.
