The Hindu Business Line : ONGC, GAIL public offers open on March 10

THE public offer for sale of the Government's 10 per cent equity each in exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and gas transmission company GAIL (India) is slated to be opened for subscription from March 10 to 16.

The merchant bankers for the public issues of 14.2 crore equity shares of ONGC and 8.4 crore equity shares of GAIL (India), have drawn up a rough time-frame under which the share allotment and price fixing will be finalised on March 26. The bids will be invited from the public under the book-building route.

A final time-table on the sequencing of the public issues relating to the timing, share allotment and price fixation will be decided by the inter-ministerial group (IMG) on disinvestment in the next few days, Government sources said.

The Government will file the draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the GAIL public issue by January 20 and for ONGC by month-end.

"We expect SEBI to offer its comments on the draft prospectus by February 23 and a final prospectus will be filed with the Registrar of the Companies by the end of February," the sources said.

The roadshows for the twin mega public issues, which at current prices could fetch over Rs 12,500 crore for the Government, are slated in the first week of March.

The book runners are currently undertaking due diligence of the two oil PSUs. A consortium of Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd and Morgan Stanley Private Ltd have been appointed book runners for the ONGC issue, while ICICI Securities Ltd and HSBC Capital Markets (India) Pvt Ltd are advising the Government on the GAIL (India) issue.

The Government has also hired Crawford & Bailey as legal advisors for the ONGC float and Dua Associates for the GAIL (India) offer.