Racing to meet its disinvestment target, the government today raised Rs 1,165 crore from sale of its 5 per cent stake in Concor after retail investors turned up in hoardes to bid near twice the number of shares reserved for them.
In perhaps their best ever showing in recent government disinvestments, retail investors put in bids worth Rs 430.88 crore, 1.84 times their reserved portion of 19.49 lakh shares amounting to Rs 233 crore at floor price of Rs 1,195 apiece.
The robust retail demand came a day after institutional investors put in bids for more than twice the number of shares they were offered.
The retail investors' portion was oversubscribed even before the close of market, according to stock exchange data.
Container Corporation of India (Concor) is the second disinvestment by the government in just over two weeks but was unlike the previous offer for sale (OFS) of NTPC where retail portion was underbid and the government had made good the deficit by allocating shares to institutional buyers.
"The 20 per cent portion of Concor OFS reserved for retail investors... Got over subscribed approximately 1.84 times," an official statement said.
The government came up with the Concor issue as it races to meet the revised, lower target of Rs 25,000 crore for current fiscal ending March 31.
With Concor, the government has mopped up Rs 19,517 crore through stake sale in seven PSUs.
"Overall the Concor OFS for 5 per cent divestment of paid-up equity out of Government of India shareholding of 61.80 per cent for equity shares of 97.48 lakh amounts to Rs 1,165 crore at floor price. The total demand was for 1.93 crore equity shares amounting to Rs 2,317.20 crore," the statement said.
This was the seventh disinvestment in 2015-16 and third in this quarter.
"In-spite of volatility in the capital market and depressed sentiments as BSE (which ended 170.62 points lower) and NSE closed in red, the retail portion of Concor OFS got thumbs up from retail investors," the statement added.
