CCEA nods for disinvestment of 10.82% stakes in SAIL

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the sale of 10.82% of its stake in Steel Authority of India (SAIL), which is estimated to fetch about Rs 4,000 crore at current market price. The total government share holding in the company is about 85.82%.

The proposal was raised by the Department of Disinvestment and it was postponed in last week’s meeting as Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma and Steel Secretary D R S Chaudhary were on an official tour. The share sale process will be conducted through auction route or by offer for sale. The government has not launched the disinvestment program for the current fiscal so far due to poor market conditions, albeit it aims to raise Rs 30,000 crore by selling stakes in the public sector firms. The Disinvestment Department is responsible to decide on the timing of the issue depending upon market conditions.

Recently, the CCEA had put on hold in the initial public offer (IPO) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) due to volatility in the markets and lukewarm response of prospective investors in the roadshows held last week. Besides SAIL and RINL, Hindustan Aeronautics, BHEL, National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Hindustan Copper and Oil India are some of the other PSUs which are on government's disinvestment radar this year.