SAIL expects Rs 3,500 cr from share sale

State-run Steel Authority of India expects to raise around Rs 3,500 crore (USD 778 million) from a share sale, its chairman said on Saturday, adding he expected steel production and sales during the current quarter to be higher than a year earlier.

SAIL's board is meeting on Monday to finalise its regulatory filing and the exact dates to launch the share sale, which is tentatively scheduled to open on June 14 and close on June 17.

"That is the time schedule as of now. But we have to discuss various options in the board and then take a final view," SAIL Chairman CS Verma told Reuters in an interview.

When asked how much SAIL expects to raise from the share sale, Verma said: "Could be in the range of Rs 3,500 crore plus minus, depending upon the (offer) pricing."

That could mean the total proceeds from the share sale would be about Rs 7,000 crore, with half of it going to the Indian government that is selling 5% of its holding in SAIL as part of a plan to shed stakes in roughly 60 state-run companies over the next few years.

SAIL will issue new shares equal to 5% of its existing share capital in the follow-on public offer (FPO).

India's largest domestic steelmaker with an annual capacity of 14 million tonnes, produced 3 million tonnes of steel during the April-June quarter last year and sold 2.3 million tonnes.

"As far as production and sales is concerned it should be better than the first quarter of last year," Verma said of the current quarter, which is the company's fiscal first quarter.

SAIL is expanding its capacity to 20 million tonnes a year by next March, and to 24 million tonnes by March 2013, by spending more than USD 15 billion, and Verma said they would be meeting about 70% of the capital expenditure through internal accruals and the remainder through borrowing.

Coal search

The company also plans to set up a 0.5 million steel plant in a joint venture with Japan's Kobe Steel in Durgapur in West Bengal with an expected investment of USD 350 million.

"We are discussing with them the final aspects of signing the JV agreement," Verma said, adding he expected the agreement to be signed in the next one and half months time.

But progress for another steel plant planned with Kobe in northern India will depend on how quickly it secures approval from government for the allocation of gas, Verma said.

SAIL is also in talks with South Korea's POSCO for a 1.5 million tonne steel plant at Bokaro in eastern India and Verma said they were in the final stages of preparing a detailed project report.

SAIL, which imports three quarters of its coking coal requirement, is scouting for coal assets overseas in a consortium with other Indian state-run firms.

Verma, who heads the consortium, said the consortium was on the verge of finalising a deal for allocation of coking coal mines by the Mongolian government, after signing an agreement with the Indonesian government to explore coal and other minerals.

(USD 1 = Rs 45)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy)