Institutions outbid RCF share sale, put in Rs 350 cr bids

The government's 5 per cent stake sale in fertiliser PSU RCF got off to a strong start today, with institutional investors putting in bids of over Rs 350 crore.
Of its total holding of 80 per cent in Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF), the government is selling 5 per cent, or over 2.75 crore shares, at a floor price of Rs 74.25.
As against 2.20 crore shares offered to institutional buyers, bids came in for over 4.71 crore shares, representing 2.14 times of the shares on offer, as per data available on the NSE.
Calculated on the indicative price of Rs 74.29 on the bourses, the institutions have put in subscription for over Rs 350 crore worth shares.

The floor price is at a discount of over 7 per cent over the previous closing of Rs 80. The offer for sale (OFS) would yield about Rs 200 crore.
The two-day OFS began on bourses today with over 2.20 crore shares being sold to institutional investors.

Over 55 lakh shares have been reserved for retail investors who will also be offered an additional discount over the issue price.
Retail investors, for whom the share sale will open tomorrow, are defined as individual ones who place bids for sales of total value of not more than Rs 2 lakh in aggregate.

In the secondary market, the RCF stock traded at Rs 75, down 6.25 per cent, on the NSE.
RCF is the fourth disinvestment of the current fiscal, which began on April 1.
The government has already raised around Rs 6,600 crore through share sales this fiscal. Of this, Rs 1,207 crore have come from initial public offering of HUDCO in May and Rs 1,192 crore through NALCO OFS in April.
Besides, around Rs 4,200 crore have been raised through stake sale in L&T held through Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) earlier this month.
For this fiscal, the government has set a target of Rs 46,500 crore through minority stake sale and Rs 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment.