ONGC and Oil India have bought 5 per cent each of the Government stake in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). This has yielded ₹5,340 crore to the Government under its disinvestment programme.

The sell-off was completed in an off-market transaction and shares were sold at ₹220 each. With this ONGC’s holding in IOC has gone up to 13.77 per cent while Oil India will have 5 per cent. Following this deal, the Centre’s shareholding in IOC has come down to 68.92 per cent. On Friday, the Indian Oil scrip closed at ₹269.20 with a gain of nearly 2 per cent, on the BSE.

After this sell-off, total receipt through disinvestment stands at ₹10,434 crore. Although, the disinvestment target at the beginning of fiscal 2013-14 was ₹40,000 crore, it was revised to ₹16,027 crore in the interim Budget.

Now, all hopes rest on the Central Public Sector Enterprises Exchange Traded Fund to achieve the target.

Opposition to OFS move It will open for subscription on March 19. The Government expects to get at least ₹3,000 crore through this fund.

Initially, it was decided to sell the Government’s stake in IOC through an offer-for-sale. But, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas opposed it saying IOC’s shares should not be sold through an offer-for-sale as the price did not reflect the right valuation of the company.

An Empowered Group of Ministers on January 16 decided to sell the stake through the block deal route.

After EGoM’s decision, IOC’s shares surged by more than ₹42, following which ONGC and OIL, however, wrote to the Petroleum Ministry saying they would each buy a 5 per cent stake in IOC at the six-month average traded price and not at the current rate.

The Government then decided to offer the IOC shares to the companies at a 10 per cent discount to the current market price through an off-market deal.

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