Government to sell 4 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper on Friday

NEW DELHI: The government will begin its stalled disinvestment programme on Friday with 4 per cent stake sake in Hindustan Copper Limited though an auction. "HCL disinvestment will happen on Friday between 9:15 am and 3:30 pm. The first tranche is only going to be 4 per cent," said disinvestment Secretary MH Khan.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Wednesday decided that the proposed 9.5 per cent stake sale in HCL will happen in two tranches.

"We don't want to flood the market with extra liquidity so we are divesting stakes in two tranches," Khan said, adding that the floor price for the issue would be decided after the close of the equity market tomorrow. T

he government is treading cautiously after Life Insurance Corporation of India had to bail out stake sale in ONGC last year by picking up almost entire equity auctioned. The company's share closed 3.7 per cent lower on the BSE at 239.2. The government holds 99.59 per cent stake in the company.

At the current price the stake sale will fetch the government nearly 900 crore, but the base price is likely to be set much lower.

The stake sale in HCL will also kick start the disinvestment process which so far has been marred by difference between the merchant bankers, finance ministry and administrative ministries over pricing issues.