Undeterred by the criticism over ONGC auction issue, the Disinvestment Department today said it is comfortable with the process and would consider selling government equity in more PSUs through the same method.
"I am perfectly comfortable with over 98% subscription [to ONGC issue], and in terms of FPOs, which were scheduled [during 2011-12], we got much more than that," Disinvestment Secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan said.
The government had planned several public issues of state-owned companies in a bid to achieve disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore, but put off the proposals considering volatile market conditions.
The only follow-on public offer (FPO) which went through was that of Power Finance Corporation (PFC) that fetched the government Rs 1,145 crore.
Hard pressed for funds, the government decided to go ahead with the auction route, approved by markets regulator Sebi earlier this month, which permits promoters to sell up to 10% stake through the auction window on stock exchanges.
Khan said the Finance Ministry will analyse the ONGC issue, which saw some technical glitches, with Sebi and experts, before deciding on more such issues.
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"It [auction route] will depend on case-to-case. Depending on the strength of company, strength of market and investor interest.
"If we analyse [with Sebi] that this process will give us better results or as good as this results, we can continue with this route," Khan said.
With the ONGC stake sale going through, the government has so far this fiscal raised about Rs 14,000 crore through disinvestment. The ONGC state sale fetched Rs 12,767 crore to the government.
The ONGC issue is being criticised by experts for its failure to evoke response from large section of investors. As much as 95% of the shares were subscribed by state-owned LIC, which had pumped in over Rs 12,000 crore.
Market participants blamed high floor price of Rs 290 a share for the poor resoponse from foreign institutional investors (FIIs).