Stake in Coal India or ONGC to be sold in December

• 9 years ago (2014-11-26)
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India aims to sell a stake in either Coal India Ltd. or Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) by December 10 to kick off long-delayed government share sale plans.

The new government, which took office in May, hopes to raise billions of dollars through selling government stakes in one of the two massive state-run companies.

The finance ministry had planned to start selling shares in September but was delayed after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was hospitalized and the top bureaucrat of the department of disinvestment was changed.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal an official at the finance ministry said: “Government has to do a big share sale either of Coal India or ONGC before December 10 and maybe a small one thereafter later in the month.”

The government plans to sell as much as a 10 per cent stake in Coal India, the country’s largest coal miner, which could raise $3.5 billion at current market prices. It is also planning to sell a 5 per cent stake in ONGC, India’s biggest oil explorer, which could raise a further $2.5 billion.

India plans to raise nearly $10 billion from share sales in some state-run companies and in a few private companies to help reduce fiscal deficit to 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product this year from 4.5 per cent last year.