By- Girish More
The government is withdrawing 1.5% from the ONGC oil rig testing center for about Rs 3000 crore with a sale promise that will remain open on Wednesday and Thursday. However, the government is selling about 18.9cr ONGC shares at a basic price per unit of Rs 159, the company said in a notice on BSE. A recent ONGC share disclosure showed that as of December 2021, the government had a 60.4% stake in the company. The offer is part of the company's annual divest that has been hit hard by LIC IPO's non-competition.
The promoter (government) proposes to sell up to 94,352,094 shares of the company, (representing 0.75 percent of the company's share price) on March 30, 2022 (non-retail investors) and March 31, 2022 (retail investors) and the opportunity to sell 9,9,99 shares in the event of over-registration), he said.
The lowest price of OFS is set at Rs 159 per share, which is a 7% discount from Rs 171.05 the ONGC stock closing price on BSE yesterday.
In the OFS, at least 25 percent of the shares are owned by partner companies and insurance companies while 10 percent are reserved for retail investors. Commercial investors are defined as investors bidding for more than 2 lakh shares
ONGC employees can apply for equal shares worth Rs 5 lakh each, said file uploading, adding that 0.075 percent of the shares sold in OFS will be allocated to eligible employees at a fixed price. The government owns a 60.41% stake in ONGC which produces part of India's oil and gas.
ONGC has informed BSE that the basic offer size of OFS will be 94.35 million shares with a face value of Rs 5 making up 0.75 percent of the company's equity. The government will also use the option to sell 94.35 million shares equivalent to 0.75% shares in the company by maintaining over-registration.
The comptroller and Auditor General of India, last week, said India had lost 3.8 million tons of crude oil worth Rs 11,276 crore over four years as a result of a water injection planned by ONGC on its west coast.
The center has managed to raise an estimated Rs 45,485.87 crore for divestment profits and dividends combined, from January 2022. The target for the 2022 financial year, although initially set at Rs 1.75 trillion, was later reduced to Rs 78,000 crore. -2022.
The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in his previous budget for 2020-2021 had set himself the goal of raising Rs 2.1 lakh crore in privatization trade and the sale of small shares in state-owned enterprises. The reduction, before the close of the financial year on March 31, comes after the government postponed its first public proposal for the country's largest insurance company Life Insurance Corp. until next year due to market fluctuations.
