Comments
SAIL's first phase follow-on public offer of 10 per cent, including 5 per cent disinvestment, is on for June as planned despite the downbeat market, Mr P.K. Mishra, Steel Secretary, said today.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting organised by Merchant Chamber of Commerce here on Wednesday, he said the equity issue proceeds of the two phases would be used to meet SAIL's partial requirement of funds for the ongoing expansion plans. “The timing is in line with the need.”
The second phase of FPO would also be for 10 per cent of the enhanced equity, half of which constitute disinvestment by the Government.
The Government owns 85.82 per cent of SAIL's equity. SAIL is ruling at Rs 156 on the bourses, down from its monthly high of Rs 177 and way below its year-high of Rs 234 recorded on October 7 last year.
SAIL's FPO was to hit the market in the second half of 2010-11, but the Government postponed it to this fiscal.
The merchant bankers and book runners have so far not been told of any change in the timeline. “If things do not go terribly wrong, then the Government would decide on the price band in the second or third week of June,” a Ministry source said.
Steel policy
Earlier, the Secretary said the “new steel policy” should be ready in six months.
The Ministry has appointed a five-member committee to draft the policy. All the stakeholders would be asked to place their inputs before finalisation. The last policy of 2005 needed a revaluation in the context of faster-than-envisaged demand growth, changes in the consumption scenario and the supply-side constraints.
The policy would, the Secretary said, take into account several aspects, including infrastructure improvement, removal of raw material sourcing bottlenecks, gradual phase-out of iron ore exports, encouragement to use of efficient technologies and R&D.
The Ministry, which is in the process of preparing ground rules for the proposed “ultra mega” steel projects (of the capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum or above), is in favour of facilitating promoters to acquire land for projects from a State through a transparent bidding process.
“The Ministry's role could be limited to facilitation of the land purchase in the context of a specific project at a location in relation to proximity to the natural resources.” He, however, hastened to add that thoughts were evolving and the policy was targeted to be finalised by the end of this year.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.