Nine merchant bankers make presentations for BHEL FPO

Nine shortlisted merchant bankers, including ICICI Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital and IDBI Capital, are understood to have made presentations before the government today for the proposed follow-on public offer (FPO) of power equipment maker BHEL.

The government is expected to raise over USD 1 billion (about Rs 4,700 crore) by offloading five per cent of its stake in state-run BHEL.

Sources said that nine merchant bankers today made separate presentations before the government for BHEL's follow-on public offer today.

The choice of merchant bankers is likely to be finalised tomorrow, sources added.

Of the 17 merchant bankers shortlisted for BHEL's proposed FPO, nine were to make presentations today, the Department of Disinvestment had said last week.

RBS, ICICI Securities, Nomura, IDFC, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Deutsche Bank, IDBI Capital Market Services, Morgan Stanley and Edelweiss Capital were scheduled to make presentations today.

Other shortlisted entities are DSP Merrill Lynch (Bank of America), Enam Securities, Credit Suisse India, Goldman Sachs, J M Financials, UBS Securities, Citi Bank and SBI Capital Market are scheduled to make their presentations on July 19.

The proposed share sale in Bharat Heavy Electricals is part of government's ambitious programme to garner Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment in the current fiscal.

At the end of June quarter, the government held 67.72% stake in BHEL.

The government has mopped up more than Rs 1,100 crore by divesting five per cent equity in Power Finance Corporation (PFC) in the current fiscal.

In the last financial year, disinvestments raked in Rs 22,762.96 crore, much lower than the set target of Rs 40,000 crore.