Bharat Electronics Share Sale Subscribed 2 Times On First Day
Institutional buyers placed bids worth over Rs 3,100 crore on the first day.
The stake sale in state-owned aerospace and defence company Bharat Electronics Ltd. saw strong demand from institutional buyers, who placed bids worth over Rs 3,100 crore on the first day of the offer on Wednesday.
The share sale attracted bids for over 2.09 crore shares as against 89.34 lakh shares offered to institutional investors, garnering subscription of 2.34 times, according to the stock exchange data.
Most of the bids came at Rs 1,500.05 per share, higher than the floor or minimum bid price of Rs 1,498. At this price, subscription of over 2.09 crore shares totalled over Rs 3,100 crore.
The government is selling 1.11 crore shares or 5 percent stake in Bharat Electronics through offer for sale (OFS) route. The share sale would fetch Rs 1,600 crore to the exchequer.
The share sale will open on Thursday for retail investors with over 22.33 lakh shares up for the bids.
Retail investors are being given 5 percent discount to the share allotment price. Any unsubscribed portion of the retail category will be allocated to the un-allotted bids of institutional buyers who have chosen to carry forward their bids on Thursday.
Shares of Bharat Electronics closed at Rs 1,510.25, down 3.19 percent over previous close on the BSE.
The government currently holds 74.41 percent in BEL.
Earlier this fiscal, the government had raised about Rs 1,800 crore through share buyback of Bharat Electronics.
The government has so far raised over Rs 31,000 crore through minority share sale by way of OFS, share buyback and Central Public Sector Enterprises exchange-traded funds (CPSE ETF) in the current financial year.
Bharat Electronics is the second government OFS in 2017, the last being the sale of its 10 percent stake in Manganese Ore (India) Ltd. (MOIL) raising Rs 480 crore.
The government had sold 15 percent in NBCC (India) Ltd. to mobilise Rs 2,200 crore in October 2016, 7 percent in Hindustan Copper Ltd. to raise Rs 400 crore in September and 11.36 percent in NHPC Ltd. to garner Rs 2,716 crore in April.