Eight merchant banks bid to manage Concor sale

The finance ministry’s disinvestment department has called eight merchant banks which had bid to manage the planned five per cent stake sale in Container Corporation of India, for presentations on Wednesday.

These are Citibank, Kotak Mahindra, ICICI, SBI Capital, IDBI, IDFC, Edelweiss and YES Bank. The department is likely to shortlist three of these. The government holds 61.8 per cent stake in the logistics company, under the ministry of railways. At the current stock price of Rs 1,351.45, sale of five per cent stake would garner Rs 1,300 crore.

The government had budgeted to raise Rs 69,500 crore in 2015-16 through divesting in public sector units. Of this, Rs 41,000 crore was to be raised through minority stake sale and Rs 28,500 crore through strategic sale. With eight months of the financial year over, the government has raised only Rs 12,600 crore, through stake sale in four PSUs. Volatile market conditions have helped dent its plans.