Govt to sell up to 1.5% stake in ONGC via OFS to garner ₹3,000 cr

The Central Government will this week sell up to 1.5% of its stake through an offer for sale (OFS) in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to raise about ₹3,000 crore. 

The OFS by the government will be open on 30 and 31 March, India's top oil and gas producer said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday.

"The promoter (the government) proposes to sell up to 94,352,094 equity shares of the company, (representing 0.75 per cent of the total paid-up equity share capital of the company) on March 30, 2022 (to non-retail investors) and on March 31, 2022 (to retail investors) with an option to additionally sell 94,352,094 equity shares (in case of oversubscription)," ONGC said.

The floor price for the OFS has been set at ₹159 per share.

This price is at a 7% discount to the ₹171.05 stock closing price of ONGC on the BSE today.

The Centre owns a 60.41% stake in ONGC which produces half of the country's oil and gas.

In the OFS, a minimum of 25% of the shares are reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies while 10% earmarked for retail investors.

Retail investors are defined as an individual investor who bids for not more than 2 lakh shares.

ONGC employees can apply for equity shares worth up to ₹5 lakh each, the filing said, adding that 0.075% of equity shares sold in the OFS would be offered to eligible employees at the cut-off price.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in her previous budget for 2020-21 set a target of raising ₹2.1 lakh crore from privatisation and sale of minority stakes in state-owned firms. 

This includes ₹1.20 lakh crore from selling a stake in CPSEs and ₹90,000 crore from stake sale in financial institutions.

So far this fiscal, the government has garnered ₹19,499 crore through minority stake sale in CPSEs and share buybacks.

Shares of ONGC ended at ₹171.05, down by ₹5.35, or 3.03% on the BSE.