The government is expected to garner Rs 4,374 crore after selling 20% stake through an Offer for Sale (OFS) of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) for the exchequer starved of funds due to the COVID-19 crisis which closed on Friday.
“The OFS of IRCTC closed with strong interest from retail investors and 109.84% subscription. With this, IRCTC is now MPS compliant. We thank all investors for their participation and making the deal so successful,” Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
The promoter had proposed to sell up to 2,40,00,000 equity shares of IRCTC, representing up to 15 percent stake, with an option to additionally sell 80,00,000 shares, representing 5 percent of the total issued and paid-up equity share capital. In all, the promoter Government of India will sell 3.2 crore shares.
The floor price for the offer was fixed at Rs 1,367.
The IRCTC OFS will help the government in meeting the Rs 2.10 lakh crore disinvestment target for this fiscal.
Of this, Rs 1.20 lakh crore will come from disinvestment of public sector undertakings and another Rs 90,000 crore from stake sale in financial institutions. The government holds 87.40 percent stake in IRCTC.
To meet SEBI’S public holding norms, the government has to lower its stake in the company to 75 percent.
