BSNL divestment shelved, listing on

Fearing opposition by employee unions, the government is considering listing telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam on bourses by issuing nominal fresh shares and may shelve plans of directly divesting its equity for the time being.

Repeated attempts by the government and also management of the PSU have failed to bring the different associations to consensus on divesting government stake even as they (employees) have been lured with Esops at attractive terms.

"We may first list BSNL on stock exchanges and then go for disinvestment," said a senior government official.

BSNL's valuation has been pegged at about $100 billion and the PSU has a paid-up capital of about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion).

The PSU has reported a lower net profit of little over Rs 574 crore (Rs 5.74 billion) with total revenues of about Rs 36,000 crore (Rs 360 billion) during 2008-09. Its revenue and net profit in the previous financial year were Rs 38,000 crore (Rs 380 billion) and Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion), respectively.