Residual stake sale on course

The government yesterday said it had started the process of appointing financial advisors to offload the 10 per cent stake in the largest profit making oil companies, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gail (India) Limited in the domestic market.

Talking to reporters, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said Disinvestment Secretary Dhirendra Singh had called on the Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman GN Bajpai on Tuesday to discuss the depth of the capital market.

He was replying to queries about the government's plans for the residual stake sale in companies like VSNL, CMC, IBP and IPCL.

"That is going on very rapidly," Shourie said. "One purpose of meeting the Sebi chief was to apprise him of the calender of events," he added.

"We will do the 10 per cent offload in ONGC and Gail first and take up the cross-holding proposal next. The process for appointing the financial advisor has begun," Shourie said.