ONGC, GAIL public issue likely in early March
Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 20:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: The public issue of 10 percent government equity stake in energy majors Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and GAIL (India) Ltd is expected in early March, official sources here said. With the government keen to conclude the process before the close of the fiscal year on March 31, plans are being drawn up for issue of the equity shares by the first week of March. "The roadmap for various clearances and issue by the advisors and the final date of the issue will be finalised by the inter-ministerial group within a week," an official source told IANS. ICICI Securities and HSBC Securities and Capital Markets are advising the government for the GAIL issue and a consortium of Kotak Mahindra Capital Co., ICICI Securities and JM Morgan Stanley for the ONGC issue. Crawford Bailey and Co has been appointed legal adviser to the public issue. At a meeting held Tuesday, "the advisors to the ONGC public issue agreed to make an early roadmap to enable the process to be completed before March 31", official sources said. Already the gas infrastructure major, which is planning to issue 84 million equity shares, has held a pre-issue investors meet in Mumbai. ONGC too is planning to start a roadshow within a week, ahead of making a public issue of 142 million equity shares. The sale of 10 percent equity shares in the two companies is expected to net 150 billion for the government, which is far behind its disinvestments target for this fiscal. With the government proposal to divest stake in two other energy majors -- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd -- stalled by a court ruling, public issue of 10 percent crossholding stakes in ONGC and GAIL has been opted for to raise resources.
Source: IANS
siliconindia