PSU disinvestment only in favourable market conditions: Pranab

NEW DELHI: The government will hit the market with disinvestment of its PSUs only when conditions are favourable and good money could be raised, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.

"... as and when I find the market is favourable and I can get good money, then I will go for disinvestment. I am not going to list out the number of PSUs (for disinvestment), indicating their percentage of share that would be offloaded in the market, over which period of time. These things we are not going to tell," he said.

"I do not know whether the PSUs were over crowding the market. Whatever we are offering (is) to the public at large. OIL (Oil India Limited) has been subscribed to by a large number of PSUs and the same is (true for) the NHPC", Mukherjee said when asked whether the spate of disinvestment could overcrowd the markets.

At the same time he debunked suggestions that pricing of public offers so far during the current financial year was aggressive and led to these shares not getting a good response in the secondary market.

The government recently offloaded its shares in the Oil India Limited (OIL) and NHPC and proposes to divest equity in another power major NTPC and Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN).