Nalco, Maruti stake sale may be delayed

NEW DELHI: Disinvestment Ministry’s proposals to sell stakes in National Aluminium Company and Maruti Udyog through public issues may suffer a setback, and may have to be delayed given the negative sentiments on PSU stocks in the market following Saturday’s decision of Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment to defer privatisation of BPCL and HPCL.
Disinvestment ministry sources fear the two issues would bomb if the government made the offerings in such market conditions. Nalco public offer was planned for December 2002 while MUL IPO is planned to be completed before March 2003.
The PSU stocks lost about Rs 11,000 crore in market capitalisation on Monday with every PSU scrip moving southwards. Oil sector stocks HPCL and BPCL were the most affected.
Nalco opened today at Rs 98 and closed at Rs 94.9 after falling to Rs 91.7 on NSE. The closing price last Friday had been Rs 105.75. Thus, over the weekend, the scrip fell 9.4%.
Though PSU stocks are likely to rebound in the next few trading sessions, disinvestment ministry sources say they are wary of the response it would get to offering of equity in the two companies.
The government planned to offload 10% of Nalco’s equity in the domestic market and 20% in the US market through issue of ADRs, while in Maruti, it had planned to sell 25% of the equity in the domestic market before March ’03.
A delay in the domestic issue of Nalco would result in delay of all the stages of the sell-off. The domestic issue was supposed to hit the market first, then the ADR issue in late January, while the financial bid for the strategic sale was planned to be invited in February ’03.