Power ministry revises timeline for IPOs

The power ministry has revised the timeline for initial public offers of public sector undertakings like NHPC and Power Grid. As per the latest timetable drawn up by the ministry some days back, the target for completing the listing of five public issues is the last quarter of the current financial year.

The listings are scheduled to start in the first week of February, 2007 and end by April, 2007.

The earlier deadline for the listing of power utility public offers was December 31, 2006.

"The first to be done will be the Power Grid Corporation of India in the second week of January, followed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation in the first week of February," government sources told Business Standard.

These two IPOs will be followed by the Rural Electrification Corporation's (REC) issue, which is expected to be completed by the third week of March next year. The North East Electricity Power Corporation's issue will spill over to the next fiscal "" it is slated to be completed by the first week of next April.

The Power Finance Corporation's (PFC) IPO, for which a draft note for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has already been circulated, is expected to be listed within this fiscal.

REC plans to raise around Rs 1,000 crore through its IPO. PFC had an equity base of Rs 1,030.45 crore at the end of March, 2005, and reserves and surplus of Rs 5,350 crore. NHPC has an authorised capital of Rs 15,000 crore and a paid up capital of Rs 10,349 crore.

While the government will take approval for offering up to 24 per cent of the paid-up capital of these companies, senior power ministry officials are of the view that only 10 per cent of their equity will be finally offloaded.

At the moment, two power PSUs are listed on the stock market. NTPC Ltd raised Rs 2,684 crore from its 10 per cent float in November, 2004, while Power Trading Corporation raised Rs 94 crore in March, 2004.