ONGC has withdrawn its offer document for follow-on public offer, with the promoter, the Government of India, deciding not to proceed with further stake dilution.
The ONGC stock closed 0.16 per cent lower at Rs 251.85 on the BSE on Tuesday.
Mr Sudhir Vasudeva, ONGC's Chairman and Managing Director, said: “The withdrawal of the draft red herring prospectus was only a technicality. Its 90 days validity was expiring, so we had to do so (withdraw the document).”
The company will file a prospectus again when instructed.
On Tuesday, ONGC came out with an advertisement stating that the red herring prospectus, or the share sale document, for the planned follow-on public offer has been withdrawn. The prospectus was filed on September 5.
The Government holds a 74.14 per cent stake in ONGC and was planning to sell 5 per cent.
ONGC had deferred the share sale just four days ahead of the planned opening on September 20.
Mr Vasudeva said the company is ready for the share-sale whenever the Department of Disinvestment decides to go ahead with it. The Government planned to raise almost fourth of its Rs 40,000-crore disinvestment target for 2011-12 through this follow-on offer.
The FPO was originally planned in the 2010-11, but was deferred as the company did not have an adequate number of independent directors on its board to meet SEBI's listing norms. Subsequently, it got further delayed due to adverse market conditions.
In January, Citigroup, Nomura Holdings, Bank of America Corp, HSBC Holdings, JM Financial Services and Morgan Stanley were appointed to manage ONGC's share sale.