Finally, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has resolved the knotty issue of investment bankers for its Rs 8,000-crore FPO as it decided to retain SBI Caps, Kotak Mahindra, Deutsche Bank and HSBC for managing the issue.
"All four book running lead managers (BRLMs) have been retained," declining to disclose his identity a senior steel ministry official told PTI.
The SAIL FPO embroiled into a technical snag with BRLMs - SBI Caps, Kotak Mahindra, Deutsche Bank and HSBC -- taking up the job with private firm Tata Steel for a similar offer. SAIL had hired these banks last September, much earlier than the private sector firm announced a same offering.
The Steel Ministry had subsequently issued a show-cause notice to the banks and sought Law Ministry's opinion on their replies. This delayed the filing of the offer documents by the maharatna company slated earlier on January 20.
However, when contacted, SAIL Chairman C S Verma said the FPO committee had deliberated on the Law Ministry's opinion along with the BRLMs' answers to the show-cause notice at a meeting during the day.
"We have discussed the views of law ministry and the explanations of BRLMs. We will take a final view on the issue early next week," Verma said after the meeting.
The SAIL Chairman, however, earlier said that the timing of the issue would entirely depend upon the market conditions, but hit the market within the current fiscal.
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After a fall of five straight trading days, Bombay Stock Exchange barometer Sensex today zoomed for the second day in a row, closing over 358 points up at 18,449.31.
This was the biggest single-day gain for Sensex this year on across-the-board buying led by realty, capital goods, metal and banking segments. Yesterday, it was up by 68.40 points or 0.38%.
A delay in SAIL FPO could also spoil government's share sale programme for the current fiscal. Compared to targeted Rs 40,000 crore fund generation programme through disinvestment in the state-owned firms, it has raised just above Rs 22,000 crore so far.