ONGC, Gail public issues on March 10

According to a tentative schedule drawn by the merchant bankers for the public offer of 142 million equity shares of ONGC and 84 million equity shares of Gail, bids under the book-building process will be invited from March 10-16. The allotment of shares and the setting of the issue price are slated for March 26.

An inter-ministerial group would meet in the next two days to finalise the time-table for the public issues, government sources said.

They said 50 per cent of the offer would be earmarked for retail investors, as per the guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The government will file the draft prospectus for the Gail public issue by January 20, and for ONGC by the month-end. The book runners for the issues are currently conducting due diligence.

"We hope to receive Sebi's comments on the draft prospectus by February 23, and a final prospectus will be filed with the registrar of companies by February-end," a source said.

Roadshows for the twin issues, which at current prices could rake in over Rs 13,000 crore for the government, are slated for the first week of March.

While a consortium of Kotak Mahindra Capital Co, DSP Merrill Lynch and JM Morgan Stanley are the book runners for the ONGC issue, ICICI Securities and HSBC Securities and Capital Markets are advising the government on the Gail issue.

The government had last month decided to sell 10 per cent equity each in ONGC and Gail through a public offering in the domestic market, to meet its unrealised disinvestment target of Rs 13,200 crore for the current fiscal.