NBCC share sale for retail buying begins; govt aims to raise about Rs 2,200 cr

New Delhi: Government's share sale in NBCC opened for retail subscription Friday, with individual investors putting in bids for 15 per cent of the shares reserved for them in the pre-noon trade.

As many as 9 crore NBCC shares are being sold over two days at a floor price of Rs 246.50. The government hopes to raise about Rs 2,200 crore through the exercise, which concludes today.

The issue, which was open to institutional investors yesterday, saw bids coming in for over 11.08 crore shares, or 1.54 times the shares reserved.

Most of the bids came at Rs 246.73 per share, slightly higher than the floor or minimum bid price of Rs 246.50. At this price, subscription of over 11.08 crore shares totalled over Rs 2,700 crore.

Of the 1.80 crore shares reserved for retail buyers, bids came in for 27.66 lakh shares, or 15 percent, as of 1155 hours, as per data available on NSE.

Retail investors are being given 5 per cent discount to the share allotment price. Any unsubscribed portion of the retail category will be allocated to the un-allotted bids of institutional buyers who have chosen to carry forward their bids.

In the secondary market, the stock of NBCC slipped 2.33 percent to Rs 245.30.

The government holds 90 percent in the company. The sale will help the firm meet Sebi norms that mandated PSUs to have a minimum public holding of 25 per cent.

Further, the offer will also be open to subscription by NBCC employees after 12 weeks of completion of the offer for sale (OFS).

The stake sale is part of the government's Rs 56,600-crore disinvestment programme for the current fiscal. So far this fiscal, the government has raised Rs 6,414 crore through OFS and buyback of equities.

NBCC is the third disinvestment through the OFS route by the government in the current fiscal. It had sold 7 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper to raise Rs 400 crore in September and 11.36 per cent in NHPC in April to garner Rs 2,716 crore.

The Cabinet had in July this year cleared disinvestment in the project management consultancy and real estate development company.

NBCC was listed on the bourses in 2012 when the government diluted 10 per cent stake to raise Rs 127 crore.