Govt to divest minority stake in 10 PSUs including HAL, OIL and NMDC: Finance Ministry

NEW DELHI: The government today said it has decided to divest stake in 10 companies, including Oil India, SAIL and Hindustan Aeronautics.

The government has decided to disinvest its stake in some of the public sector undertakings, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"The realisation would depend upon prevailing market conditions and investor interest at the time of actual disinvestment," he said.

As per the plan, the government will sell 10 per cent stake each Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Oil India and NMDC.

Besides, it plans to offload 12.15 per cent in NALCO, 10.82 per cent in SAIL, 9.50 per cent in NTPC and 9.33 per cent in MMTC.

Also, a 5 per cent stake sale in BHEL and another 4.01 per cent in Hindustan Copper is in the pipeline.

During the current financial year, government disinvested 10 per cent in NBCC and 5.58 per cent of Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) out of its shareholding and realised an amount of Rs 124.97 crore and Rs 807.02 crore respectively totalling Rs 932 crore.

The Finance Ministry has already said that the government is taking necessary action to achieve the budgetary target of Rs 30,000 crore set for the financial year 2012-13.

Last month, the government sold 5.58 per cent stake in HCL for about Rs 807 crore at an average price of Rs 156.56 apiece, with bulk of the bids coming from LIC and PSU banks.

The government has already initiated the process of disinvestment of 10 per cent of stake in NMDC, 9.3 per cent in MMTC, and 9.5 per cent in NTPC.

Besides, the Cabinet has also okayed disinvestment of 12.1 per cent in Nalco.