ONGC FPO likely in current quarter

The issue of independent directors required on the board of oil major ONGC is likely to be resolved soon and the government plans to offload stake in the company,along with PFC and SAIL,in this quarter itself.

We are in the process of resolving the independent director issue in ONGC. Follow-on public offer of the company is likely to come in the quarter ending June, a finance ministry official said. ONGC does not meet Sebis listing norms of having equal number of functional and independent directors and the government had planned to withdraw both its nominees from the board to meet the requirement and push the FPO.

But the move would have led to ONGC losing its coveted Navratna status,which gives the company board autonomy to approve investments of any size for projects,and enables it to invest up to Rs 1,000 crore in a joint venture. The government plans to sell 5 per cent stake or 427.77 million equity shares through the FPO to raise up to Rs 12,000 crore. It was to hit the market in March,but was deferred.

The official added that Power Finance Corporation is likely to be the first public issue of the current fiscal,followed by SAIL.