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The Government’s 5 per cent stake sale today in power sector lender PFC got fully subscribed with strong demand coming in both from institutional and retail investors.
As against offer for 6.6 crore shares, the Government received 13.22 crore shares (200.31%). While non-retail investors evoked strong response (162.73 per cent), retail portion was subscribed by 350.67% till 3.10 pm local time.
The Government has set the floor price at Rs 254 per equity share for the divestment of five per cent of its stake in PFC. Retail investors will have a 5 per cent discount to the issue price.
Through the issue, the government is likely to mobilise around Rs 1,676 crore.
At present, the Government holds 72.80 per cent equity in PFC. Post stake-sale, the Government's holding will be reduced to 67.80 per cent.
The Centre has set a target of Rs 69,500 crore from PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal. Of this, Rs 41,000 crore is expected to come through PSU disinvestment and the rest Rs 28,500 crore through strategic disinvestment.
Earlier in April, the Centre had raised Rs 1,500 crore through stake sale in REC.
PFC is the first disinvestment under the modified OFS rules of SEBI under which companies are allowed to disclose stake sale plans two ‘banking’ days ahead of the issue.
The Department of Disinvestment had approached SEBI in March saying they do not want trading days in between the announcement and stake sale.
Earlier, the companies were required to give an advance notice of two trading days before the OFS, which the government says gave scope for speculators to beat down the share price of the disinvestment-bound PSU.
The Department has a Rs 69,500-crore target from PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal, of which Rs 41,000 crore would come from minority stake sale and Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.
As much as 20 per cent of the issue size is reserved for retail investors and 25 per cent for mutual funds and domestic insurance companies.
The remaining portion is left for institutional investors, which are usually lapped up mostly by domestic financial institutions and foreign funds.
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