Mumbai: The government will open the first divestment account on Wednesday with up to 10% stake sale in the National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and may mop up over Rs600 crore.
In an exchange filing, Nalco told the BSE that the promoters (the government owns 74.58% and the rest is with the public) will sell 5% aggregating 9.67 crore equity shares, through an offer for sale (OFS) on Wednesday. Nalco has an option to divest an equal quantity, it added.
The company comes under the administrative purview of the union mines ministry. Nalco is the first divestment in fiscal 2018 under which the government has lined up over Rs34,000 crore by divesting its stake in nearly a dozen state-run companies. The issue price has been set at Rs67 a share, Nalco said in the filing. The Nalco shares closed at Rs73.45 on the BSE on Tuesday.
The offer will open on Wednesday for non-retail investors and Thursday for retail investors, a company official said. The aluminium major earlier announced that it has posted 16.8% growth in bauxite production up to February 2017 with a volume of 65.64 lakh tonnes, the highest since its inception. At its aluminium smelter, cast metal production grew by 3.79% and the aluminium metal sales grew by 2.68%
With the aluminium market firming up, the Navaratna unit foresees sunny days ahead and is planning to increase its cast metal production by 12% in the next fiscal, it said.