The government raised $56.84 million (Rs 309 crore) by selling some of its shares in state-run Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) on Friday, as part of a divestment drive to help rein in the budget deficit.
The RCF share auction was subscribed 1.3 times the number of shares on offer, with bids at a weighted average price of Rs 45.02 against the government's minimum offer price of Rs 45 a share, stock exchange data showed.
New Delhi was selling a 12.5 per cent stake, or about 69 million shares, in RCF to reduce its stake to 80 per cent.
The RCF share sale is part of the government's divestment drive to help restrict fiscal deficit to 5.2 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 31 and fend off the threat of becoming the first of the BRIC economies to have credit rating downgraded.
The government has raised nearly $4 billion through the sale of shares in state-owned companies so far this year, including a $2.2 billion selldown in state-run power utility NTPC last month.
Other issues likely to be launched by the end of this month include a 10.82 per cent stake sale in steelmaker Steel Authority of India that could raise about $600 million and a 12.15 per cent divestment in National Aluminium.
Shares in RCF, valued at about $460 million, ended up 3.53 per cent on Friday at Rs 45.45 after having risen as much as 5.7 per cent during the day, while the Nifty closed 1.41 per cent higher.
ICICI Securities, a unit of India's top private lender ICICI Bank, and IDBI Capital Markets were the managers for the RCF share sale.
Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2013
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