Price hurdle for Coal India divestment

The government's plan to divest 10 per cent stake in Coal India has hit a unique hurdle. The stock price of the coal mining giant has slipped below its previous disinvestment price of Rs 358. Sources in the know say the government doesn't want to divest below the previous share sale price.

The Centre had raised Rs 22,000 crore in India's biggest ever public issue in January. Interestingly, the stock has been trading below Rs 358 for the past two months. As global investors have turned wary of commodity companies, it doesn't seem the stock might bounce back in a hurry.

Samie Modak

 
Fatca impact on domestic investors
The US anti-tax avoidance rules have impacted domestic investors, too. With India signing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) agreement, mutual fund subscription forms have been tweaked. Domestic investors now need to state that they are not residents of United States while filling the form. In it, there is a section asking if the investor is a US citizen and seeking details of investments there. This would enable funds to capture details of investors who hold US accounts or investments before investing in Indian mutual funds.

Jayshree P Upadhyay

Three private investors corner HDFC warrants?
Mutual fund houses which had bid for HDFC's twin debenture-cum-warrants were upset when they did not get their promised allotment. They realised investors who were allotted the warrants got it by bidding at the opening price of Rs 146.05, just five paise more than the fund houses' bid of Rs 146. More important, fund houses allege that most of the warrants went to only three savvy investors, who have made crores. It was almost like the movie 'Trishul' where Amitabh Bachchan would bid just Rs 1 less than Sanjeev Kumar to get contracts, says the chief executive of one of the fund houses which had bid for it.

Joydeep Ghosh