Govt's initial lot of 5% stake in Coal India disinvestment fully subscribed

New Delhi: The big ticket disinvestment of up to 10 percent in Coal India, to raise about Rs 22,600 crore, got subscribed 29.81 percent in the afternoon trade today. The total issue of 63.16 crore shares got bids for 18.82 crore shares by 1350 hours, as per BSE data. [caption id=“attachment_2042273” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Stake sale in Coal India. Reuters[/caption] The retail category of 12.63 crore shares got bids for over 2.38 crore shares (18.86 percent) while the general category of over 50.53 crore shares was subscribed nearly 33 percent. The government is selling 31.58 crore shares, or five percent stake, through a public offer, with an option to sell another 5 percent. At the floor price of Rs 358 apiece the public offering, if fully subscribed, would fetch Rs 22,600 crore to the exchequer. Coal India is the second PSU to hit the market under the government’s disinvestment programme in the current fiscal, the first being SAIL in which shares worth about Rs 1,700 crore were sold. On the BSE, the CIL scrip hit a low of Rs 360.50, down 3.90 percent over its previous close, in the early trade. It continued to trade in the range of Rs 360.50-364 in early trade which was higher than the floor price. As much as 20 percent of the offered shares have been reserved for retail investors, who can buy stocks worth up to Rs 2 lakh in the share sale. A minimum of 25 percent of the issue size would be reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies. Also, a 5 percent discount on the bid price would be given to retail investors. The CIL share sale would help the government meet more than half of the disinvestment target of Rs 43,425 crore in the current fiscal. Opposing the disinvestment, trade unions yesterday had said they will hold “symbolic demonstration” to protest the decision and also warned of a possible strike at a later stage after discussing the matter with all central unions. The stock exchanges had also sought clarification from the company on media reports that unions have threatened to ‘go slow’, to which CIL replied that it has not received any such notice.  PTI