Govt begins roadshows for NTPC, BEL disinvestment

Government has embarked on global roadshows at four locations, including the US and the UK, to attract investments for its big-ticket stake sale in the country’s largest power producer NTPC and BEL that may fetch around ₹6,600 crore to the exchequer.

Officials from the Department of Disinvestment (DoD), Power Ministry and NTPC are doing roadshows simultaneously in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and in the United States between October 5-10.

In the US, roadshows are being held in San Francisco, Boston and New York, sources said.

Government already has Cabinet approval for 5 per cent stake sale in NTPC. Both NTPC and Bharat Electronics Ltd form part of the Basket Two of PSUs, which the DoD had created earlier this year.

Going by the current stock price, 5 per cent stake sale in NTPC could fetch about ₹5,200 crore, while in case of BEL offloading 5 per cent may garner ₹1,400 crore.

Government will go ahead with the disinvestment of the two companies based on investor responses in the roadshows and the domestic equity market conditions, sources said.

With first half of the current fiscal already over, the government has garnered only ₹12,600 crore through stake sale in four PSUs – IOC, PFC, REC and Dredging Corporation.

It had budgeted to raise ₹69,500 crore through disinvestment in current fiscal of which ₹28,500 crore is to come from strategic stake sales.

The government had in August appointed Deutsche Bank, ICICI Securities, SBI Capital Markets and Edelweiss Financial Services as merchant bankers for Basket Two – which apart from NTPC and BEL, also has Engineers India, NALCO and Hindustan Copper.

DoD had decided to bundle the PSUs in order to reduce the number of roadshows to be conducted by the merchant bankers as that can be clubbed for companies in similar sector.