Government's 10 percent stake sale in Engineers India got fully subscribed today, with bids pouring in from institutional investors, even as the retail segment remained under-subscribed so far. At the floor price of Rs 189 apiece, the sale of over 3.36 crore shares would fetch about Rs 637 crore to the exchequer, considering 5 percent discount being offered to retail shareholders. The stake sale received bids for over 3.39 crore shares, representing 1.01 times the total shares on offer as on 1300 hours, NSE data showed.
The subscription may rise further during the day as bidding will continue till 1530 hours. The Engineers India (EIL) share sale went through mainly on the back of demand from institutional investors who bid for 2.80 crore shares, against 2.69 crore shares on offer. The portion was subscribed 1.04 times.
Retail demand, however, remained tepid, with bids for 59.70 lakh shares coming in as against 67.38 lakh shares on offer. The portion reserved for them remained under-subscribed at 89 percent. This is the fifth disinvestment this fiscal.
The government had in August last sold a minority stake in IOC. The EIL stock bounced back paring its initial losses and was trading 2.09 percent higher at Rs 198.10 on BSE. The government currently holds 69.37 percent in EIL, a public sector company under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
It provides engineering and construction consultancy, particularly in the hydrocarbon space. The government has so far raised only Rs 12,700 crore through PSU disinvestments in the current fiscal against the budgeted target of Rs 69,500 crore. Of the target set in February last year, Rs 41,000 crore was to come from minority stake sale in PSUs and another Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.
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