The government is expected to raise Rs 4,374 crore from the Offer for Sale (OFS) of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) which closed on Friday.
The IRCTC OFS will help the government in meeting the Rs 2.10 lakh crore disinvestment target for this fiscal. Of this, Rs 1.20 lakh crore will come from disinvestment of public sector undertakings and another Rs 90,000 crore from stake sale in financial institutions.
The promoter had proposed to sell up to 15 per cent stake in IRCTC, representing up to 2,40,00,000 equity shares, with an option to additionally sell 80,00,000 shares, representing 5 per cent of the total issued and paid up equity share capital.
The floor price for the offer was fixed at Rs 1,367.
“The OFS of IRCTC closed with strong interest from retail investors and 109.84% subscription. With this, IRCTC is now MPS compliant. We thank all investors for their participation and making the deal so successful,” Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
MPS refers to Sebi’s minimum public shareholding norms.
In all, the promoter Government of India will sell 3.2 crore shares, which is expected to garner Rs 4,374 crore for the exchequer starved of funds due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The government holds 87.40 per cent stake in IRCTC.
To meet Sebi’s public holding norms, the government has to lower its stake in the company to 75 per cent.
IRCTC, the only entity authorised by Indian Railways to provide catering services, online railway tickets and packaged drinking water at railway stations and trains in India, was listed on the stock exchanges in October 2019. The company had raised Rs 645 crore through the IPO.