Divestment in Oil India, NTPC soon: Mittal

The government is likely to come out with 10 per cent stake sale offer of Oil India in the second fortnight of this month, followed by NTPC's issue in the first 14 days of February, a Finance Ministry official said.

"We will come out with Oil India issue in the second fortnight of January and in the first fortnight of February NTPC will hit the markets," Disinvestment Secretary DK Mittal said.

As part of the its Rs 30,000-crore disinvestment target for this fiscal, the government plans to divest 10 per cent stake in Oil India, which could fetch around Rs 2,700 crore at the prevailing market price.

Besides, a 9.5 per cent stake sale in NTPC could reap over Rs 12,000 crore for the exchequer. The government proposes to divest 9.5 per cent stake in NTPC via Offer for Sale (auction) route.

The government holds 84.5 per cent stake in the NTPC. Post-disinvestment, the government stake would come down to 75 per cent. NTPC became public with an initial public offer(IPO) in 2004.

Before the fiscal-end, the government has a mammoth task to achieve the Rs 30,000-crore target set in the 2012-13 Budget. So far, it has managed to raise over Rs 6,900 crore through minority stake sale in PSUs.

While NMDC issue had fetched Rs 6,000 crore, stake sale in Hindustan Copper yielded Rs 808 crore for the government. Earlier, the government had realised Rs 154 crore from NBCC initial public offering.

The government has already identified 10 companies, including Oil India, SAIL and Hindustan Aeronautics. It plans to sell 10 per cent stake each in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Besides, it plans to offload 12.15 per cent in Nalco, 10.82 per cent in SAIL and 9.33 per cent in MMTC. Also, a 5 per cent stake sale in BHEL and another 4.01 per cent in Hindustan Copper are in the pipeline.