 "NBCC retail portion subscribed 81%")
The retail (small investor) portion of the Rs 2,200-crore Offer for Sale (OFS) in government-owned construction entity NBCC (India) was subscribed about 81 per cent on Friday.
Retail investors bid for 14.7 million shares against the 18 mn reserved for them. This bidding by individual investors took the overall subscription to 1.5 times, data showed.
This retail response has been better than in the past few divestment stake sales. It could be on account of the arbitrage opportunity, investment bankers said. NBCC shares were available to such investors at Rs 234.2 each, a five per cent discount on the floor price. In the open market, the shares closed at Rs 241.3 on Friday.
With this, the government has successfully sold a 15 per cent stake in NBCC, reducing its holding to 75 per cent. This was 2016-17’s third divestment by the government through the OFS route. This financial year, it has raised a total of Rs 5,317 crore by selling holdings in three public sector undertakings (PSUs). It has also mobilised money by share buybacks in National Aluminium and MOIL.
Last month, the Centre sold seven per cent stake in Hindustan Copper to raise Rs 400 crore through the OFS route. In April, it had sold 11.3 per cent stake in NHPC, raising Rs 2,717 crore.
Axis Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, and Nomura Financial Advisory were among the investment banks that handled the NBCC share sale.