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As many as 48 private sector companies are expected to offload shares worth about $1.8 billion (about Rs 9,900 crore) in the next five weeks to meet the minimum public holding of 25%.
According to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, there are about 48 companies that currently have a public holding of less than 25%.
These include Adani Ports, Adani Enterprise, Omaxe, Bajaj Corp, Sun TV Network, Fortis Healthcare, Essar Ports and JSW Energy.
The list also comprise Tata Teleservice, Tata Communications, Berger Paints, Astrazeneca Pharma, Oberoi Realty and Thomas Cook.
Together these companies would need to sell shares worth $1.8 billion to meet the norms.
"While we have witnessed a flow of deals from the companies to either lower their promoter shareholdings or de-list from the exchanges, there are still 48 private companies with more than 75% promoter shareholdings," the report said.
"While recent listings like Bharti Infratel and L&T Finance would get extensions, some other companies may have received some extension due to ongoing deals and the resulting restructuring," it added.
The report said that companies like Oracle Financial Services, Bajaj Corp, Linde and Omaxe are already in the process of offloading promoter shares via the Offer for Sale (OFS) route.
Besides, there are some companies such as Fresenius Kabi and Chettinad Cements that have initiated de-listing process.
In addition, there are 12 PSU companies that have over 90% government holdings. These companies are together required to offload shares to the tune of $750 million to comply with Sebi's guidelines by August.
"We estimate that there could be supply of $1.8 billion by June and $2.5 billion by August to comply with these Sebi guidelines," the report said.
As per new norms for listed firms that was implemented in June 2010, all private sector firms have been asked to attain a minimum public holding of 25% by June 2013, while public sector entities were asked in August 2010 to increase their public holding to at least 10% by August 2013.
Market experts believe that stock market does not have the appetite to absorb share sales worth more than Rs 10,000 crore offered by these companies within five weeks.
"Many big corporate houses or the companies having sound fundamentals would be able to pare promoters holding, but the same would not be true for small firms as the market does not have the appetite to absorb the shares offered by them," CNI Research Kishor Ostwal said.
Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) and OFS are the two new share sale tools introduced by the regulator in January last year, especially to help corporates increase their public float.
