The government's offer for sale of 84.5 million equity shares in GAIL (India) Ltd through book-built public offer opened on Friday and received bids for 4.411 million shares in the first hour of bidding process.

Investors have placed bids for 4.411 million shares at Rs 185 per share, the floor price set for the bidding process, according to the data available with National Stock Exchange.

On NSE, GAIL scrip opened at Rs 200.50 this morning as against yesterday's close of Rs 196.65 per share.

The government has offered a five per cent discount to retail investors.

The GAIL public offer is slated to close on March 5.

The offer is through a book-building route. A maximum of 50 per cent of the net offer would be available for allocation on a discretionary basis to Qualified Institutional Buyers.

About 25 per cent of the net offer would be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to non-institutional bidders and 25 per cent of the net offer would be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to retail bidders.

HSBC Securities and Capital Markets Ltd and ICICI Securities Ltd are acting as a book running lead managers for the offer.