By Anjana Das
New Delhi, Feb 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Disinvestment department DIPAM is looking at completing the acquisition of government stakes by state energy giant NTPC in North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) and THDC India Ltd (THDCIL) and IRFC listing and few Offer-for-sales (OFS) to reach the Rs 65,000 crore sell-off target, DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kant Pandey said.
"The government will reach the target of Rs 65,000 crore for the current fiscal. We have already reached a little over Rs 34,000 crore. It will be met from various ongoing transactions -- the NTPC-THDCI-Neepco deal will be concluded this fiscal. We plan to conclude the transaction this fiscal because we have progressed there. Apart from this there are others as well such as IPOs (IRFC-IPO) and OFSs also", Pandey told IANS in an interview.
Sources said NTPC may have to complete the buyout by the end of FY20 in a bid to help the Centre struggling to meet its disinvestment targets. The earlier target to garner Rs 1,05,000 crore through disinvestment is now revised by 40% to Rs 65000 crore. The estimated revenue from both these deals with NTPC could fetch government Rs 11,000 crore.
Pandey said the CPSE ETF received bids worth Rs 20,571 crore from seventh tranche and government decided to retain Rs 16,500 crore of funds from this recent tranche.
Pandey did not name the CPSEs who will be up for the OFSs, but sources said the OFS is being mulled for a number of CPSEs such as Coal India, NBCC, NLC and Hudco and Nalco among others.
IRFC has filed draft papers with markets regulator SEBI for its initial public offering (IPO). In the IPO, the Centre is likely to piggyback the company's proposed issuance of fresh shares to offload 5% of its equity in the company.
Post IPO, the government's holding in the company could fall to 86.4%. The IRFC IPO likely to fetch around Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer.
According to the annual report of these companies for FY19, the net worth of NEEPCO was Rs 6,301.29 crore and that of THDCIL was Rs 9,280.78 crore as on March 31, 2019.
Currently, the government holds a 100 per cent stake in NEEPCO, which operates and maintains power stations in the north-eastern region, and 75 per cent in THDC. The Uttar Pradesh government owns the remaining 25 per cent stake in THDC India.
(Anjana Das can be contacted at anjana.d@ians.in)
Source: IANS
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