Centre May Opt Offer For Sale For Divestment

NEW DELHI: Gearing up to meet the 43,000 crore disinvestment target, the finance ministry has decided to go in for Offer For Sale (OFS) route to sell its stake in the state-owned companies starting with SAIL in September.

The OFS is the most preferred route for stake sale and has evoked good response from investors and hence the government has decided to stick to it, sources said.

Efforts, they said, are being made to increase retail participation in the OFS from the present 10 per cent. The Department of Disinvestment (DoD) and finance ministry’s capital market division are in talks with the market regulator Sebi in this regard. A 35 per cent retail quota has been earmarked for every issue undertaken through Follow on Public Offer.

Sources said the finance ministry is of the view that since the FPO route takes 3-4 months for regulatory clearances, the OFS would be better as the exercise is completed within 15 days to one month.

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