The government is looking to sell shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) held through Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) and is soon going to appoint an intermediary to manage it. The plan is to sell about 8 lakh shares of RIL that will help the government garner around Rs 180 crore. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will appoint an intermediary that will act as a custodian of these shares. The intermediary, based on its market analysis, will offload these shares at the best price, said an official. A final approval on the proposal is expected soon.
The sale will help the government to meet disinvestment target.
Shares of ITC, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro are likely to stay with the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India, which was to be wound up in June.Legal opinion received by the government suggests that SUUTI can exist as long as all investors in one of the schemes floated by the erstwhile Unit Trust of India have not redeemed their investment, sources close to the development said. The value of the shares of the three blue chips was estimated at over Rs 15,000 cr.
Three leading domestic voting advisory firms are not on the same page over the proposed demerger and separate listing of ITC's hotel business, ITC Hotels. Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) has recommended a vote "against" the resolution, while InGovern and Stakeholders Empowerment Services (SES) have advised their clients to vote in favour. Voting on the resolution is currently underway.
Capital markets regulator Sebi has kept in 'abeyance' the proposed initial share sale of securities depository NSDL. However, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) did not clarify further. The National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) filed its preliminary papers with the capital markets regulator on July 7.
Last week, govt sold shares worth Rs 220 crore in the open market without making a formal announcement. The deal came to light only this week.
India will miss its revised divestment target for the second time in the past eight years by a wide margin, as the government may not be able to raise an expected over Rs 60,000 crore from the IPO of insurance behemoth LIC in 2021-22. Since the Modi government came to power in 2014, it was only in the financial year 2019-20 that it failed to achieve the revised CPSE divestment target of Rs 65,000 crore. The mop-up during the year was only Rs 50,304 crore. In the ongoing financial year 2021-22, the government was all set to go ahead with the share sale of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) this month and draft papers for the same were also filed with markets regulator Sebi.
Suuti's merchant bankers give proposal; deal value could be Rs 2,800 crore
The government has shortlisted Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas for giving legal advice on upcoming mega IPO of India's largest insurance company LIC, an official said. Four law firms - Crawford Bayley, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Link Legal and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co - had made presentations before the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on September 24. Following presentations, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has been selected as legal advisor for the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the official told PTI.
The asset manager is yet to resolve the impasse surrounding the payment of pension to its erstwhile employees who had opted for voluntary retirement in 2003.
The government has appointed 10 merchant bankers including Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities India to manage the mega initial public offering of country's largest insurer LIC. Other selected bankers include SBI Capital Market, JM Financial, Axis Capital, BofA Securities, JP Morgan India, ICICI Securities, and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co Ltd, a circular on the divestment department website said. "Government has finalised the book running lead managers and some other advisors for the IPO of LIC," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted. The divestment department had invited applications for the appointment of merchant bankers on July 15.
Arun Jaitley will aim for jumps in other revenue streams for the government.
Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea (VIL) has decided to opt for converting about Rs 16,000 crore interest dues liability payable to the government into equity which will amount to around 35.8 per cent stake in the company, as per a regulatory filing of the telecom firm. If the plan goes through, the government will become the biggest shareholder in the company which is reeling under a debt burden of about Rs 1.95 lakh crore. "...the board of directors, at its meeting held on 10th January 2022, has approved the conversion of the full amount of such interest related to spectrum auction instalments and AGR dues into equity.
The Specified Undertaker of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) is ready to pay the Rs 8,000 crore due to the 1.2 million investors in Unit Scheme 1964 (US-64), many of whom have been associated with India's oldest mutual fund scheme for 44 years.
Lines up seven OFS issues along with half a dozen IPOs for the next few months
The previous highest divestment proceeds for the first half of a year was around Rs 21,000 crore in 2016-17.
Niti Aayog will prepare the next list of central public sector companies for disinvestment in the next few weeks, its vice chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Thursday and expressed hope that the proposed asset reconstruction and management companies to address banks' bad loan woes will do a good job like the UTI. Days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget for 2021-22 laying out various measures (including disinvestment proposals) to bolster the pandemic-hit economy, Kumar also emphasised that the Modi government has shown consistent commitment for the welfare of farmers and for the improvement of the agriculture sector. "Now the process has begun... We will complete preparation of the next list in the next few weeks, we have got the marching order," Kumar said about the list of public sector companies for the next round of stake sales.
The writer believes that the current stock market rally will continue until early 2013. He predicts this based on partial success of current Parliament session, resolution of US' fiscal cliff, and government disinvestment.
The Axis Bank share sale was launched on Thursday in an indicative price band of roughly Rs 1,290 to Rs 1,357 a share.
An official close to the development said the tender invited by the SUUTI closed in the second week of this month and 12 parties submitted their expressions of interest.
Bonds worth about Rs 3,300 crore (Rs 33 billion) are held by institutions and retail investors in dematerialised form or demat, which will be redeemed automatically. In fact, the redemption process, which is the biggest ever in India, has already begun for bonds worth Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) that are held in demat form by institutions.
Strategy being reworked to launch ETFs, revive Suuti; proceeds may be Rs 24k crore
Centre might move swiftly on its next round of strategic sales in CPSEs
The government on Wednesday issued special 6-year bonds worth Rs 328 crore (Rs 3.28 billion) for meeting Unit Trust of India's shortfall in assured return scheme.
The government will soon come up with Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) bonds, offering a tax-free return of 6.6 per cent for investors in seven assured return schemes of the Unit Trust of India.
While divestment through IPOs saw an over 90 per cent drop as compared to the previous financial year, the exchange traded fund (ETF) route proved to be a shot in the arm for the government, reports Sundar Sethuraman.
Institutional investors - both foreign and domestic - lapped up the government's big-ticket share sales on Friday, helping it add nearly Rs 9,000 crore to its revenue kitty.
Rumours about a spike in taxes for equity investors are flying thick and fast.
Many bankers say the move will have a serious impact on the chain of command of nationalised banks and that it would only enable the government to dish out favours to a few of their own men.
To check fiscal deficit, government needs to drastically cut Plan expenditure.
The New Year 2015, however, may see shares worth over Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) being put on the table by the government, including by way of part-sale of its holdings in PSUs and its residual minority stakes in some private sector entities.
Using buyback as a divestment tool is not new, the amount raised this year is phenomenally high.
While the April-February deficit is pegged at 5.3 per cent of GDP, the final print may be a tad lower due to revenue push and expenditure cuts seen in March, the last month of 2013-14 fiscal year, it said.
To take the Rs 49,000 crore ITC to the top slot in the highly competitive FMCG business will require some aggression.
Industry asked the government to be 'brave and bold' and said that it will rise to the occasion.
A tightrope walk ahead, especially as govt's fiscal deficit has already reached 99% of full-year estimates
'The IPO window has been more or less open since the new government in 2014.'
The government's disinvestment programme is set to get a boost this Diwali, with the finance ministry planning to hit the market to sell a five per cent stake in Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) by October.