The government is planning to increase its disinvestment target in Coal India Ltd (CIL) from 10 per cent proposed earlier to 15 per cent, as it wants to put a sizeable number of shares in the market and also offer them to employees and farmers displaced by its mines.
“The company wants to offer a chunk of shares in the market, so that there is an adequate floating stock for trading,” a coal ministry official said, adding that it would be only through enough offering that CIL would be able to discover its valuation.
The official said the CIL’s initial public offering of about 15 per cent would be done in one go and not in bits and pieces.
The company, which has a paid-up equity capital of about Rs 6,316 crore, clocked a pre-tax profit of Rs 8,738.46 crore in the last fiscal.
It plans to offer stock options to over 400,000 employees. Besides, it would also offer shares to the displaced farmers as part of the compensation. CIL has mines spread in Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand on land acquired from farmers.
