Listed PSUs sell shares worth Rs 2500 cr to meet Sebi norms

Listed public sector companies have sold shares worth over Rs 2,500 crore to comply with minimum public shareholding norms for which the deadline ended last week, a report said today.

Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) norms required all state-run companies to have at least 10 percent public shareholding by August 8.

Till June 30, as many as 16 public sector companies were required to meet Sebi's minimum public shareholding norms.

Amongst these NMDC, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers, State Bank of Mysore had complied with the guidelines. According to a report by Prime Database, public sector firms namely Hindustan Copper, ITDC, MMTC, STC, National Fertilizers and Neyveli Lignite have recently complied with the deadline.

Besides, the excess government holding in six other listed PSUs -- HMT, Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore, ITI, Andrew Yule, Hindustan Photo Films and Scooters India – would be transferred out to a Special National Investment Fund.

"This puts to rest the continuing concerns raised by several analysts that PSUs shall not comply citing one reason or the other and that some relaxation shall be granted to them," the report noted.

Since April 2011, the government has garnered a total of Rs 2,501 crore by diluting its stake in PSUs in order to meet Sebi's guidelines.

Out of the total,  Rs 2,086 crore has been raked in through the Offer for Sale (OFS) mechanism and another Rs 424 crore through the Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) route.

Both these instruments were designed specifically by Sebi for promoters to divest their holdings to meet the regulator's norms.

In June, Sebi had clamped down on more than 100 private sector companies that failed to comply with the minimum 25 percent public holding norms.

Sebi had acted against 105 private companies that failed to meet the norms within the deadline of June 3, despite repeated reminders and various relaxations provided to the companies to help them meet the requirements.  Since then, 20 of these companies have complied with the requirement.