Five merchant bankers shortlisted for NMDC disinvestment

Five merchant bankers, including ICICI Securities, Citibank and SBI Capital, have been shortlisted for assisting disinvestment of government's 10 percent stake in blue-chip National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).

The other two merchant bankers/selling brokers are Edelweiss Financial Services and Deutsche Bank.

The government has proposed to put up about 39.64 crore shares through Offer for Sale(OFS) and fetch an estimated Rs 3,600 crore at current market price.

The short-listed brokers will be making a presentation before an Inter-Ministerial Group on June 3.

Government holds 80 percent stake in the PSU, with a paid up capital of Rs 396.47 crore.

The government would also allot shares up to a maximum of 5 per cent of the OFS size to NMDC employees at a discount of 5 per cent to the issue or discovered price. The employees will be eligible to apply for shares up to Rs 2 lakh only.

The PSU, which is in the administrative control of Ministry of Steel, is primarily engaged in the business of iron ore mining but is also expanding its activities towards production of steel and other value-added products.

Proceeds from NMDC disinvestment will be part of government's total disinvestment target of Rs 56,500 crore this fiscal.

Of this, Rs 36,000 crore is estimated to come from minority stake sale in PSUs, and the remaining Rs 20,500 crore from strategic sale in both profit and loss-making companies.