Retail investors may pay less for PSU offerings

Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said retail investors might be given discounts when six state-owned companies, including Gail (India) Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), CMC and Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd, came out with their public offerings.

"The government has always, as in the case of Maruti, wanted to reward small investors. Issues like the extent of discount and the requirement of a lock-in period will be specified in our proposal to the finance minister," Shourie said on the sidelines of the Gartner telecom summit.

Shourie said the schedule for the six public floats had been finalised and rescheduling had been undertaken for those of ONGC and Gail after discussions with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the advisors to the disinvestments. This was done in order to ensure a good response, he added.

Shourie said the price band for the IPCL public offering, slated for February 20, would be announced after the stock market closed on February 19. Roadshows for the offering were flagged off in Mumbai today.

On whether differential pricing would be adopted for all the six initial public offerings (IPOs), Shourie said, "Each of these companies are so different that we will have to do different things."

When asked if the disinvestment ministry was hopeful of meeting the disinvestment target for the current fiscal, Shourie said the Sebi chairman, merchant bankers and the companies were "confident" of the success of the floats.