The government is planning to increase its disinvestment target in Coal India from 10 per cent proposed earlier to 15 per cent as it wants to put a sizeable number of shares in the market and also offer them to employees and farmers displaced by its mines.
"The company wants to offer a chunk of shares in the market so that there is an adequate floating stock for trading," a coal ministry official said, adding that it would be only through enough offering that Coal India Ltd would be able to discover its valuation.
The official said the CIL's initial public offering of about 15 per cent would be done in one go and not in bits and pieces.
The company, which has a paid-up equity capital of about Rs 6,316 crore (Rs 63.16 billion), clocked a pre-tax profit of Rs 8,738.46 crore (Rs 87.4 billion)i n the last fiscal. It plans to offer stock options to over 4 lakh employees. Besides, it would also offer shares to the displaced farmers as part of the compensation.
CIL has mines spread in Chattishargh, orissa and Jharkhand on land acquired from farmers. While the officials did not specify any time-frame on the IPO, the company and the ministry is in touch with market regulator SEBI on the proposal.
CIL Chairman PS Bhattacharyya had met disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitral last month to discuss the stake-sale proposal.
