CPSE ETF to hit mkts by March; may fetch Rs 5,000 cr

The Finance Ministry is planning to offer the second tranche of CPSE Exchange Trade Fund (ETF) by the end of March, which may fetch Rs 5,000 crore to the exchequer.
"The selling of additional lot in CPSE ETF should happen by March," a government official said, adding that the proceeds would be added to the disinvestment kitty.
The success of the first CPSE ETF, which was floated in March 2014, prompted the Disinvestment Department to tap the route once again. The previous UPA government had in March 2014 raised Rs 3,000 crore by way of CPSE ETF.
Sources indicate that the government is looking at mopping up about Rs 5,000 crore from the ETF this time.

It is the first attempt of the government to channelise investor money into PSU stocks through the mutual fund route.
The 10 PSUs which are part of the CPSE ETF basket are Oil & Natural Gas Corp, GAIL India, Coal India, Indian Oil, Oil India, Power Finance Corp, Rural Electrification Corp, Container Corp, Engineers India and Bharat Electronics.
An ETF is a security that tracks an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but trades like a stock on an exchange.
The government estimates to collect Rs 43,425 crore through PSU disinvestment in the current fiscal. So far it has collected over Rs 24,200 crore through stake sale in SAIL and Coal India.