Bids for over 5.42 crore shares were received, accounting for 1.61 times the shares on offer, as per data on the National Stock Exchange.
The issue, which has been extended by two days on account of bank strike, will close tomorrow.
Government is selling over 3.36 crore shares or 10 per cent of its stake in EIL through a Follow on Public Offer (FPO) and the price band is Rs 145-150 apiece.
As much as 35 per cent of the issue size is reserved for retail investors and so far they have put in bids for 1.15 times the shares reserved for them.
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The qualified institutional investors portion was subscribed 2.45 times.
The government, which currently holds 80.4 per cent in the miniratna company, had divested a 10 per cent stake in 2010.
In January last year, the government decided to go in for further disinvestment in EIL, a leading provider of design, engineering and project management and consultancy services for the hydrocarbon sector.
The stake sale is being managed by ICICI Securities, IDFC and Kotak Mahindra Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services and IDBI Capital.
This is the second disinvestment through a follow-on offer in the current financial year. In December, government sold 4 per cent in Power Grid Corporation of India, which fetched the exchequer over Rs 1,600 crore.
The government has raised about Rs 3,000 crore of its disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for the current financial year.