Disinvestment targets not to be affected by turmoil: Montek

quot;A lot of people have said the stock market is looking forward to a spate of good issues. Many of these companies would be seen as high quality scrips8230; We would like to combine sale to domestic and foreign institutions with a retail offering,quot; Ahluwalia said.

Emphasising that July and August were not the right times of the year to hit the market, the finance secretary said the government could consider the domestic offering at a discount, especially to individuals, but clarified that for this priorapproval would be necessary.

Singh told reporters on the sidelines of the Euromoney Conference here that apart from the disinvestment, strategic sale of five PSUs was also under consideration, though it was not under direct supervision of the finance ministry.

On the likely process of disinvestment in domestic markets, Ahluwalia said for institutional investors government might go through the book building process. Under the book-building process each institution offers a price and quantity it intends to purchase.

The finance secretary said, disinvestment would be combination of domestic issue and GDRs. The retail investor should also get a chance to investment in good quality issues, he said adding government might offer individual investors shares at a discount from prices prevailing at the time of disinvesment. 8220;By offering these scrips at discount, the confidence of small investors can be brought back and the ailing primary market revived,8221;Ahluwalia added.

He said the fundamentals of these fourcompanies are good and are likely to get a good response from investors. Earlier, speaking at the Euromoney conference, he dispelled fears about the economy getting affected as a result of sanctions.