India plans to step up share sales in the next six months and offer stakes in seven companies including Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s second-biggest refiner, said Sumit Bose, the top bureaucrat in charge of asset sales.
Sale of shares in Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., Manganese Ore (India) Ltd., Shipping Corp. of India Ltd., and Hindustan Copper Ltd. will be completed by December, Bose, the disinvestment secretary, told reporters in New Delhi today.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government plans to raise 400 billion rupees ($9 billion) from asset sales in the year through March and cut the budget deficit to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product, a three-year low. Investor appetite for local shares has surged in 2010, evidenced by a record $24 billion of inflows into equities since January.
Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest producer of the fuel, received bids for all the shares being offered to institutional and retail investors, according to the National Stock Exchange’s website. The government is selling a 10 percent stake in the company. The offer opened Oct. 18 and closes Oct. 21. India aims to raise 151 billion rupees from the sale.
The government will next sell shares in Power Grid, followed by sales in Indian Oil, Oil and Natural Gas Corp. and Steel Authority of India Ltd. between January and March, Bose said.
Indian Oil will invite bids from merchant bankers in the coming weeks to advice on the sale, Bose said. The Indian Oil share offer may fetch about 190 billion rupees, he said.
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