The government has lined up over a dozen companies, including ONGC, NMDC and BHEL for disinvestment in the current fiscal. (Representative image)NEW DELHI: With an array of blue chip PSUs likeONGClined up fordisinvestmentthis fiscal, employees of state-owned firms will get the right to subscribe to more than double the present quota of shares after market regulator Sebi has agreed to a government proposal.
Enthused by the employee subscription demand earlier this year in the IOC and NTPC share sale, the Finance Ministry had asked Sebi to allow employees to apply for shares beyond the limit of Rs 2 lakh per employee.
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Sebi in its board meeting on September 23 allowed the firms to allot more shares for their employees during public offers by increasing the limit for the value of such allotments to Rs 5 lakh, up from Rs 2 lakh currently, under staff quota.
“The next offer for sale or initial public offer of a PSU would have the new ceiling for the employee quota,” an official said.
Currently the government offers shares to employees of a company up to a maximum of 0.5 per cent of the post issue capital of the issuer. The shares are offered at a discount of 5 per cent.
The government had raised Rs 262 crore through allotment of shares to employees of IOC, and Rs 204 crore to employees of NTPC.
In the IOC share sale, employees had applied for 53 per cent of the shares offered for them, while in the NTPC the employees bid for over 85 per cent of the shares.
The government has lined up over a dozen companies, including ONGC, NMDC and BHEL for disinvestment in the current fiscal.
It hopes to raise over Rs 56,500 crore through stake sale in PSUs. Of this, Rs 36,000 crore would come from minority stake sale, and another Rs 20,500 crore from strategic stake sale.
