Inter-ministerial Group clears 7.64% National Fertilisers disinvestment; to raise Rs 175 crore

NEW DELHI: An Inter-ministerial Group (IMG) today approved 7.64 per cent government stake sale in National Fertilisers ( NFL), which is expected to fetch over Rs 175 crore to the exchequer.

"The IMG has cleared the stake sale of National Fertilisers by way of offer for sale. The disinvestment department will soon seek Cabinet nod for the stake sale," official sources said.

At present, the government holds 97.64 per cent stake in NFL.

The stake sale in NFL is part of Department of Disinvestment's (DoD) effort to meet the minimum 10 per cent public shareholding norm as stipulated by market regulator Sebi for PSUs.

"We are looking at raising Rs 175 crore from NFL stake sale. We plan to do the stake sale by August," sources said, adding that the DoD would soon float Request For Proposal (RFP) for appointing merchant bankers for the issue.

Shares of NFL closed at Rs 46.35, up 2.77 per cent on the BSE today.

The IMG is headed by Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur and has members drawn from Ministry of Fertiliser, Departments of Legal Affairs, Corporate Affairs and senior officials from NFL.

The DoD had earlier this month floated Cabinet note for inter-ministerial consultation on NFL stake sale.

The government proposes to raise Rs 40,000 crore by way of disinvestment in the current fiscal. It has already lined up a host of companies, including Coal India, Indian Oil and Hindustan Aeronautics, for stake sale.

Although two months of the fiscal are about to get over, no disinvestment has taken place so far.