Giving a fresh push to the divestment process, the government has invited bids to engage legal advisors for minority stake sale in five public sector companies through the offer for sale (OFS) route. Bids have also been invited to appoint a legal advisor for a follow-on-offer for the CPSE Exchange Traded Fund.
The five State-run companies where minority stake sales are contemplated are NTPC (5 per cent), Bharat Electronics (5 per cent), OIL India (10 per cent), Engineers India (10 per cent) and Hindustan Copper (15 per cent).
At current market prices, the stake sale in these five public sector entities could fetch as much as ₹11,500 crore to the exchequer.
The Centre is looking to raise ₹69,500 crore this fiscal through divestment in State-run companies. Of this ₹41,000 crore is expected to be raised from sale of minority stake and ₹28,500 crore from strategic stake sales.
As for the CPSE ETF, the Centre on Friday said it wants to launch a follow-on fund/ tap/ tranche offer of existing the CPSE ETF scheme comprising stocks of 10 listed central public sector enterprises.
The Finance Ministry is planning to launch by October a more retail investor friendly CPSE ETF in which the funds of the EPFO and NPS could also be parked.