The government owned hydro power giant – NHPC Ltd -- is closely watching the market to see when the time would be "ripe" to make its initial public offer (IPO), chairman and managing director SK Garg said today.
"We are just waiting. The IPO has not been cancelled. It is deferred. We have time until September-October to go ahead," he said at the sidelines of a hydropower conference.
He declined to say what Sensex or Nifty levels would trigger the IPO for the mini-ratna company.
The company proposes to sell a record 168 crore shares of a face value of Rs 10 each raising a minimum of Rs 1,680 crore, in addition to the premium. A third of these shares are on account of disinvestment by the government while the rest is a fresh issue of shares by the company, he said.
This deferment does not mean that the company would be starved of funds or that any of its ongoing projects would be impacted.
NHPC has 13 Power Stations with capacity of 5,175 MW. It has 11 Projects under construction with capacity of 4,622 MW.
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"We required funds for the last year of the current plan — 2011-12 — and for the 12th plan," he added.
The money was being raised ahead of the requirement, in the current financial year, "to take advantage of the market" and to allow disinvestment by the government. "The IPO would also have given us more visibility," he added.
Sebi approval for the NHPC's IPO took a long time as it struggled to get the required number of independent directors on its board.
Garg said that the company was now in the process of adding functional directors which currently stand reduced to two only.