India Said to Choose Arrangers for $1 Billion IOC Share Offering
India has met or exceeded its privatisation target only six times since 1998.
(Bloomberg) -- The Indian government has chosen arrangers for the sale of a nearly $1 billion stake in the country’s largest refiner, Indian Oil Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The country picked Citigroup Inc, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to advise on the offering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. ICICI Securities Ltd. and SBI Capital Markets Ltd. are also among banks selected to work on the sale, the people said.
The 3 percent stake the government is aiming to divest is worth 63.9 billion rupees ($990 million) based on Thursday’s closing price. The country, which currently owns 58.3 percent of the energy giant, is pursuing a sale as it seeks to meet a 725 billion-rupee divestment target for the fiscal year beginning April 1. India has met or exceeded its privatization target only six times since 1998.
Banks will get a fee of 1 rupee for advising on the Indian Oil share sale, according to the people with knowledge of the matter. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while representatives for the government, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, ICICI and SBI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Indian cabinet last month approved a plan to sell stakes as big as 25 percent in 11 state-run companies through public offerings. The earmarked companies include Indian Railway Finance Corp., Bharat Dynamics Ltd. and North Eastern Electric Power Corp.
--With assistance from Anto Antony and Unni Krishnan
To contact the reporters on this story: George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net, Debjit Chakraborty in New Delhi at dchakrabor10@bloomberg.net, Siddhartha Singh in New Delhi at ssingh283@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, Marcus Wright at mwright115@bloomberg.net, Unni Krishnan at ukrishnan2@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert, Candice Zachariahs