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Government Plans To Sell 5% Stake In Steel Authority Of India Via Offer-For-Sale, May Get Rs 1,000 Crore

At the current market price, the government may raise about Rs 1,000 crore by selling a 5 percent stake in the company.

Sparks fly as a worker grinds the edge of a steel tube at the finishing line of the steel tube mill at the Steel Authority of India Ltd. Rourkela Steel Plant in Rourkela district, Odisha, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)  
Sparks fly as a worker grinds the edge of a steel tube at the finishing line of the steel tube mill at the Steel Authority of India Ltd. Rourkela Steel Plant in Rourkela district, Odisha, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)  

The government is planning to sell 5 percent stake in Steel Authority of India Ltd. through an offer-for-sale, which could fetch about Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer, an official said.

Officials from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management and steel ministry are planning roadshows in Singapore and Hong Kong for SAIL stake sale. However, the Hong Kong roadshow might be called off due to coronavirus outbreak.

The government holds a 75 percent stake in SAIL. It had last sold a 5 percent stake in the steel central public sector enterprises in December 2014. "We are looking at a 5 percent stake sale via offer for sale, but we will assess investor demand in the roadshows," an official said.

At the current market price, the government may raise about Rs 1,000 crore by selling a 5 percent stake in the company. Shares of SAIL closed at Rs 48.65 apiece on Friday, down 0.51 percent over previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The government may look at completing the transaction in the current fiscal as it strives to achieve the Rs 65,000 crore disinvestment target set in the revised estimates.

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So far this fiscal, Rs 34,000 crore has been mopped up from CPSE stake sale and the remaining Rs 31,000 crore has to come in by March-end. For 2020-21, the government has budgeted to collect Rs 1.20 lakh crore from the CPSE stake sale. The government is also planning to sell a 10 percent stake in Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. through an OFS, out of its shareholding of 74.50 percent. The stake sale would fetch about Rs 200 crore to the exchequer at the current market price.