Govt to divest stake in 10 more PSUs

Aiming to raise Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) from disinvestment, the government on Wednesday said it will sell its stake in 10 more PSUs, including IndianOil, MMTC, Coal India Ltd, SAIL, RINL and Shipping Corporation, in the current financial year.

"Engineers India is likely to be disinvested in June, Coal India in August, Hindustan Copper in August-September, SAIL in September and Power Grid in November this year," disinvestment joint secretary Sidhartha Pradhan told PTI.

This would be followed by disinvestment in IOC and Manganese Ore India Ltd in December, RINL in January 2011, MMTC in February and Shipping Corporation in March next year, he added.

The government is aiming to raise Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal through stake sale in public sector entities and has set a roadmap for the same with the first issue SJVNL sailing off smoothly.

The Budget has upped the revenue target from sale of government equity in CPSUs to Rs 40,000 crore in 2010-11
from the Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) targeted in the current fiscal.

"The Rs 40,000-crore disinvestment target for the current fiscal is on track," Disinvestment Secretary Sumit Bose said. As per the Cabinet decision, all listed profitable PSUs should have a public holding of at least 10 per cent and all profitable unlisted CPSUs should be listed.

As per criteria, 60 state-run companies are eligible for disinvestment. Last fiscal, the government had raised Rs 25,000 crore through stake sale in PSUs like Oil India, NMDC, REC and NTPC.

The first stake sale of this fiscal - SJVNL- has got good response from investors, prompting the government to fix the issue price at the upper end of the band at Rs 26 a share. The stake sale would fetch the Centre over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).