Seven power PSUs to list by '06

PFC, PowerGrid and NHPC among others in queue.

The next few months are likely to see a flurry of power utility public offers as the power ministry has set December 31, 2006 as deadline for listing seven public sector undertakings under it.

These include National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd, Rural Electrification Corporation, Powergrid Corporation and Power Finance Corporation.

Of the seven, Power Finance Corporation is expected to hit the market some time in May. PowerGrid, too, is reported to be working on selling up to 10 per cent of its equity.

"We are coming out with an initial public offer by December this year on the lines of IPOs of companies like NTPC," the PowerGrid Chairman and Managing Director RP Singh had said recently.

At the moment, two power PSUs are listed on the stock market. NTPC Ltd raised Rs 2,684 crore from its 10 per cent float in November 2004, while Power Trading Corporation raised Rs 94 crore in March 2004.

"It is not an impossible deadline to achieve and we intend to meet it," a power ministry official told Business Standard. The ministry has not yet arrived at the sum that these disinvestments will garner. "It is too premature to talk of what can be raised," he added.