 "LIC buys half of Hind Copper shares on offer")
New Delhi: State-run LIC picked up nearly half of Hindustan Copper’s shares put on offer for sale in November last year, stock exchange data revealed today.
LIC picked up 2.25 crore shares, or 2.43 percent stake, of the total 5.16 crore shares put on offer. The Hindustan Copper FPO marked the government’s disinvestment process for the current fiscal. There were five more insurers that took part in the process, but their combined shareholding, as on December-end, is not more than 0.51 percent.
[caption id=“attachment_581921” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]
The OFS got lukewarm response in the initial trading hours of the day, but share sale picked up towards the end of the day. As per the stock exchange data, as much as ten financial institutions participated in the share sale and they picked up a total 80.93 lakh shares or 0.87 percent stake.
Only three Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought a total 0.01 percent stake in the copper producer. Individuals have bought 1.69 crore shares or 1.83 percent stake in Hindustan Copper. This includes participation from 57,465 small investors’ and their combined holding of 1.07 percent stake.
Corporates also shied away from making big investments in the offer as the data revealed 1,559 corporate bodies now have 59.89 lakh shares or 0.65 percent holding. Following the FPO, Government’s stake in the company has now come down to 94.01 percent from 99.59 percent earlier.
The government had sold 5.58 percent stake in Hindustan Copper for about Rs 808 crore at an average price of Rs 156.56 apiece. It had planned to dilute its stake by 4 percent in the copper major through offer-for-sale route, with an option of selling an additional 5.9 percent.
PTI
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