After ONGC, NBCC IPO likely in March

Mumbai: State-owned National Buildings Construction Co’s (NBCC) initial public offering may be launched on March 22, Sidhartha Pradhan, additional secretary in the government’s Department of Disinvestment, told television channel CNBC TV18 on Wednesday.

The government plans to sell a 10 percent stake in NBCC, which is a consultant for civil construction and real estate projects.

The share sale will be the government’s first since a $2.6 billion auction in Oil and Natural Gas Corp earlier this month failed to attract enough investors, forcing state-run Life Insurance Corp to pick up most of the 5 percent stake on offer.

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While pricing details for the issue are yet to be worked out, the IPO is expected to raise between 2 and 2.5 billion rupees, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. Enam and IDBI Capital are the merchant bankers to the issue.

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The share sale is part of the Indian government’s plan to raise 400 billion rupees in the current fiscal year through stake sales in state-run firms, to trim a yawning fiscal deficit.

So far, the government has raised about $2.8 billion in two share sales.

Stake sales in Bharat Heavy Electricals , Oil India and Steel Authority of India Ltd could be considered in the fiscal year that starts in April, Pradhan said.

Reuters