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Journalism of Courage
The government managed to garner over Rs 1,500 crore from the truncated divestment in the nation8217;s largest steel producer SAIL that barely managed to scrape through.
The Offer For Sale OFS received bids for 24.13 crore shares against 24.03 crore shares on offer,as per the data available of the BSE.
The indicative price,which is the weighted average price of all valid bids,was Rs 63.07 a share. At this price,the government would garner over Rs 1,500 crore.
The government had fixed the floor price for the issue at Rs 63,a 1.41 per cent discount to yesterday8217;s close. Shares of SAIL today closed at Rs 63.40,down 0.78 per cent on the BSE.
8220;We are expecting around Rs 1,500 crore,8221; Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur told reporters here.
The Empowered Group of Ministers EGoM on disinvestment,headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram,earlier this week decided to halve the SAIL offer size to 5.82 per cent from the earlier planned and Cabinet approved 10.82 per cent,amid a weak trend in the stock market.
SAIL stake sale was the last disinvestment for the current fiscal. With this,proceeds from PSUs stake sale in this fiscal would go up to around Rs 23,800 crore,the highest ever realisation on disinvestment front in a single year. However,it would be a tad less than the revised estimates of Rs 24,000 crore.
The government held 85.82 per cent stake in the company.
SAIL stock has lost 8 per cent in the last one week and over 30 per cent since March last year.
The steel major has a cash balance of over Rs 6,000 crore and have a net worth of over Rs 40,000 crore.
