Facing a daunting ₹69,500-crore PSU stake-sale target, the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) has begun tapping new overseas markets, such as Australia, Japan and Canada to attract their cash-rich pension and sovereign wealth funds.
Traditionally, investors from markets, such as the US, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong have been tapped to invest here. “We are now looking at new markets. We have big pension funds and sovereign wealth funds in Australia, Japan, and Canada. They have shown a lot of interest,” a senior government official told PTI.
To attract new long-term funds, the DoD has been stressing on market-making for successful PSU disinvestment.
“The pension funds and SWFs are long-haul investors; that is the kind of investors we need in PSU stocks,” the official added.
To address investor queries, DoD officials, during their visit to Australia took along company representatives from NTPC, BHEL and NMDC, the official said.