Bharat-22 ETF's 4th tranche to open today; govt expects to raise Rs 8,000 cr

New Delhi: The government will launch the fourth tranche of Bharat-22 ETF today (3 October), which will help garner up to Rs 8,000 crore from investors, sources said. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a basket of securities that trade on an exchange, just like a stock. They added that the issue will open for anchor investors on 3 October and for other institutional and retail investors, tomorrow. The investors would get a 3 percent discount over the issue price.

“The offer is likely to have a base issue size of Rs 2,000 crore, with a green-shoe option to retain another Rs 6,000 crore, taking the total amount to Rs 8,000 crore,” a source privy to the development said. The decision has been taken after receiving robust response for earlier stake sale by the government in the product.

The government has so far raised around Rs 35,900 crore via through the Bharat-22 ETF—Rs 14,500 crore was garnered in November 2017, another Rs 8,400 crore was mopped up in June 2018 and Rs 13,000 crore in February this year. [caption id=“attachment_5697571” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Proceeds from the ETF will help the government meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore for the current financial year. The Central Public Sector Enterprises that are part of the Bharat-22 ETF include ONGC, IOC, SBI, BPCL, Coal India and Nalco. Other constituents are Bharat Electronics, Engineers India, NBCC, NTPC, NHPC, SJVNL, GAIL, PGCIL, NLC India, Axis Bank, ITC and L&T. Only three public sector banks—SBI, Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda—figure in the Bharat-22 index. Earlier this month, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, which manages the ETF, had filed the draft papers regarding the issue with capital markets regulator Sebi.