The Hindu Business Line : Power Trading Corpn again postpones share listing

THE ONGC imbroglio now seems to have ensnared Power Trading Corporation too, which is in the process of completing one of the hottest equity issues of the year.

The power trading company has had to postpone for the second time listing its new shares on the stock exchanges even as its registrar, MCS Ltd, continued to grapple with the allotment of shares of ONGC Ltd.

PTC said today it was postponing listing its stock on the BSE to Wednesday.

A company official said "technical problems" had prevented its registrar MCS Ltd from giving details of final allotment of shares to depositories to credit winning bidders' accounts.

"This is an embarrassing situation. We would have liked to list our shares as early as possible. But a technical snag in MCS's systems has caused the problem. MCS Ltd has reassured us that it will have things under control by tomorrow," Mr Rajiv Bharadwaj, Executive Vice-President (Corporate Development), told Business Line.

A source involved in trouble-shooting at MCS told Business Line that the over-allotment of ONGC shares to some high net worth applicants was a simple error caused by a wrong entry in the computer.

According to the source, the mega issues of ONGC and GAIL had put the registrar, which had to handle lakhs of applications per day, under tremendous pressure. PTC's Rs 58.5-crore issue itself was oversubscribed 46 times.

MCS is also handling the issue of Bank of Maharashtra and has been named registrar for ICICI Bank's forthcoming Rs 3,500-crore equity issue.

PTC initial public offering of equity closed on March 8, but it has had to postpone the listing day twice.

The company had originally planned to list the shares on March 29.

According to the company's red herring prospectus, it will have to pay shareholders interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum if allotment of shares is delayed beyond 15 days after the issue closes.

Mr Bharadwaj said the company would not have to pay any fines.

A senior market analyst said the Securities and Exchange Board of India might excuse PTC from paying the charge as the delay has been caused by circumstances beyond its control.