The government will realise over Rs 1,000 crore through stake sale in SJVNL, its first disinvestment this year, at the issue price of Rs 26 a share.
The issue price, fixed by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) yesterday, will fetch the UPA government the lowest amount so far through disinvestment in its second term. SJVNL is offloading 10 per cent of the Centre’s equity or 415 million shares in the IPO that closed Tuesday. The issue had generated good demand among investors and got subscribed 6.61 times. The offer also saw a robust participation from retail investors and the portion reserved for them was subscribed 3.11 times. SJVNL is the sixth public sector unit (PSU) lined up for disinvestment by the UPA government in its second term.
Most PSUs divested by the UPA in the second term did not get a good response from retail investors. SJVNL is a joint venture between the Centre and Himachal Pradesh with the former holding 74.5 per cent stake and the latter 25.5 per cent.