New Delhi: 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.
Bureau Report