Talks to sell stake in 60 CPSUs continue

The disinvestment department on Friday said it is in talks with administrative ministries of 60 CPSUs, including SAIL, BSNL, Coal India, for selling government stake.

In his first interactions with the media, Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra said, "We are in interactions with the Ministry of Steel for SAIL, we are in interactions with the Coal Ministry on Coal India. On BSNL also, we are in interaction with the IT and Communication Ministry."

However, Mitra refused to set a time-frame for the process. A lot of factors have to be taken into consideration before the process is set in motion, he said.

The Government recently stated that profitable unlisted PSUs should hit capital markets and all profitable listed PSUs should increase their public holding to at least 10 per cent.

Mitra informed that there are 10 listed PSUs where the public holding is less than 10 per cent and around 50 state-run firms which are profitable but unlisted.

"We are in interaction on a large number of these 60 companies with their administrative ministries. We are in interaction with them but it does not mean that we are close to divesting them... All this is a function of a number of factors," he said.

To a query whether the opposition by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and DMK would mean that PSUs located in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu would not be on the priority list of disinvestment, Mitra said there was no such guidance from the government.

When pointed out that a section of analysts termed the NHPC and Oil India listing as "too aggressive", Mitra pointed out that all PSU shares listed in the past few years are ruling at above their listing prices, except for the hydel power major NHPC. He described NHPC as a long-term stock.

Oil India was listed on September 30 at Rs 1,050 but closed the day at a hefty premium of 8.62 per cent at Rs 1,140.55 on the BSE. Today its shares closed at Rs 1,189 on the BSE.

NHPC was listed on September 1 on an issue price of Rs 36, but it was a dampener with a just 1.94 per cent rise at Rs 36.70 on the BSE. NHPC closed at Rs 32.25.

To a query, whether the Government would adopt a mechanism to offer shares to qualified institutional investors at differential prices, Mitra said the Government would consider such options for the follow-on public offers.

He refused to name any companies that would be listed other than NTPC, REC and Satluj Vidyut Nigam, which have already been cleared by the Cabinet and would be listed this fiscal itself.

He also refused to put a figure to the amount to be realised by the Government from the divestment process.

The listed CPSUs that are making profits and have public holding of under 10 per cent include trading firm MMTC, mining major NMDC, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Engineers India, State Trading Corporation, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, National Fertilisers and Andrew Yule.

At present, the public holdings in these companies range from 0.67 per cent in MMTC to about 9.6 per cent in Engineers India.

Unlisted and profitable CPSUs include big names like the telecom behemoth BSNL and coal major Coal India among others.