NALCO offer of sale oversubscribed over three times

Mumbai, April 21 (IANS) State-run National Aluminium Company offer for sale (OFS), got overwhelming response from investors with the retail portion subscribed 3.17 times on the second and last day of the offer on Thursday, the government announced.

Institutional investors had bid 1.84 times on Wednesday.

"The central government has successfully divested 9.2 per cent of paid-up capital in National Aluminum Company Ltd. (NALCO) to raise Rs 1,200 crore to begin financial year 2017-18 with a bang," a Finance Ministry release said.

"Originally, the disinvestment in NALCO OFS was pegged at 5 per cent of paid-up capital, but seeing the overwhelming response from the market, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) exercised the green shoe option to retain over-subscription and raised the offer to 9.2 per cent on Wednesday," it said.

With this transaction, the government’s shareholding in NALCO has come down to 65.37 per cent.

For 2017-18, the government has set a target of Rs 46,500 crore through minority stake sale, and Rs 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment.

In 2016-17, the government had raised over Rs 46,247 crore from disinvestment.