The government, which on Thursday decided to sell ten per cent stake in NALCO, now contemplates offloading ten per cent stake in the Coal India Limited through initial public offerring.
"The finance ministry has asked us to explore the possibility of offloading certain amount of government stake in the CIL. We are accordingly deliberating on the issue.
It is not known whether the disinvestment proceeds would be utilised for funding CIL's modernisation plans," official sources told PTI.
Offloading government stake to the tune of 10 per cent could mobilise money to the tune of more than Rs 7,000 crores (Rs 70 billion).
The finance ministry has asked the public sector behemoth to solicit the opinion on probable valuation of the company, sources said.
Galvanised by the proposed move, CIL has begun deliberations with the ministry on various issues related to disinvestment. It has an equity base of more than Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) with equity shares amounting to nearly Rs 1,000 each, sources said.
It may be recalled that earlier the T L Shankar Committee too had recommended disinvestment of nearly 50 per cent in the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute but the offloading of stake remained in limbo.
It was not immediately known whether the government would stick to its earlier plan of splitting shares of Rs 1,000 face value to 100 shares of Rs 10 face value before the IPO.Do you want to discuss stock tips? Do you know a hot one? Join the Stock Market Investments Discussion Group