Indian Govt. plans to sell some shares from Nalco and other PSUs

The government is planning to sell stakes in its three blue chip companies Nalco, Bhel and NMDC after the last attempt of selling shares in IndianOil and ONGC backfired due to the sharp fall in oil prices.

An estimated 10% stakes will be sold from both NMDC and Nalco, one a mining company and other an aluminium producer, as proposed by the finance minister. In case of Bhel, a fresh 5% disinvestment is being contemplated.

Wednesday’s closing rates suggest that selling stakes of these companies is likely to fetch the government INR 10,000 crore.

On Thursday a cabinet is scheduled where the proposals will be discussed although it is still unclear whether the sales would occur in this financial year or will they spill over to the next year featuring on the list of PSUs where the government plans to disinvest.

In the current financial year too the government sold a number of shares including some from Balco, Hindustan Zinc, ITC, L&T and Axis Bank but fell grossly short of the targeted earnings of INR 43,000 crore, raising only around INR 24,000 crore with a little over a month left of the financial year end.