Oil major ONGC on Tuesday said the government's holding in the company has come down by 4.91 per cent to 69.23 per cent following stake sale last week. Prior to the Offer for Sale, the government had 74.14 per cent stake in ONGC.
The government sold 42.04 crore (Rs 420 million) shares in ONGC and garnered Rs 12,766 crore (Rs 127.66 billion), ONGC said in a filing on the BSE.
Of the 42.04 crore shares auctioned last week, state-owned insurance giant LIC picked up 37.71 crore (Rs 377 million) shares in the company and its total holding has gone up to 9.48 per cent.
Taking into account the average price of Rs 303.67 a share, the country's largest insurer would have invested around Rs 11,450 crore (Rs 114.5 nillion) during the first ever auction of PSU shares on March 1.
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has bought 37.71 crore shares representing 4.41
The government auctioned 5 per cent of its stake, or 44.77 crore shares, in ONGC on March 1.
While the ONGC auction was subscribed 98.3 per cent, LIC has picked up over 84 per cent of the shares on offer. The remaining was bought by institutional and retail investors.
With the acquisition of 4.41 per cent, LIC's stake in ONGC has gone up to 9.48 per cent, the filing added. As per the Insurance regulator IRDA guidelines, an insurance firm's holding should not exceed 10 per cent in any company.
