Early last month, DoD had issued a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to select merchant bankers and legal advisors for disinvestment of 10 public sector units (PSUs). Two RFPs were issued for merchant bankers, for five companies each. DoD had presentations from seven merchant bankers on Wednesday, for a basket of five companies. These were NTPC, Engineers India, Bharat Electronics (BEL), National Aluminium (Nalco) and Hindustan Copper. Presentations from likely candidates for another basket of five — Oil India, Container Corporation (ConCor), NMDC, MMTC, and India Tourism (ITDC) — is scheduled on Thursday. The Centre will pare 10 per cent stake each in Oil India and NMDC, 15 per cent stake in MMTC, 12.03 per cent stake in ITDC, and five per cent stake in ConCor. The merchant bankers said to be shortlisted on Wednesday are for sale of 15 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper, 10 per cent stake in Nalco and Engineers India, and five per cent stake in NTPC and BEL. Together, these 10 could garner as much as Rs 20,000 crore for the exchequer. Apart from PSU stake sales, budgeted to get proceeds of as much as Rs 41,000 crore, the Centre has targeted Rs 28,500 crore from “strategic sales” in loss-making PSUs or other assets like warehouses, factories, hotels and office buildings which might be surplus to need.
Hence the total disinvestment target for the year is Rs 69,500 crore.
So far this financial year (starting April 1), the government has sold five per cent stake each in Power Finance Corp and Rural Electrification Corp, garnering Rs 1,500-1,600 crore from each.