FinMin proposes 9.5% stake sale in NTPC, eyes Rs 13168 cr

Sources say that the Finance Ministry moved a note seeking the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approval to sell 9.5% or around 783 million shares in NTPC. Once this stake sale takes place the government’s stake in NTPC will come down from 84.5% to 75% and thereby NTPC will meet SEBI’s guideline of having 25% minimum float.

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Interestingly, this entire 9.5% need not be offloaded in one go. There is a strong possibility that NTPC stake sale disinvestment may happen in tranches and sources add that this is very much part of the CCEA note. The route that has been identified for this disinvestment is the offer for sale.

Also, it is learnt that an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) is going to have final say in deciding the floor price for this offer for sale. The EGoM will also have the final decision on how many tranches there should be and how many shares should be sold in every tranche.

The EGoM will be authorised to decide whether the offer for sale would indeed be the disinvestment method or whether another option should be looked at for disinvesting nearly 9.5% stake in NTPC. But going by this, it certainly seems is that the government is on track to meet Rs 30,000 crore disinvestment target