Government sold a 2.5 percent stake in engineering and construction group Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) on Wednesday, raising more than Rs 4,000 crore that will help the government meet its annual fiscal deficit target.
The stake, held by the state-owned Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI), was sold through block deals in stock markets, said Neeraj Gupta, the top bureaucrat looking after government stake sales, confirming earlier media reports.
SUUTI, which was created to take over part of the assets and liabilities of the now-defunct Unit Trust of India, held 6.53 per cent stake in L&T. With the sale, the government holding in L&T through Suuti has come down to a little over four per cent. With this transaction, the government has garnered nearly Rs 6,400 crore from disinvestment so far in the current financial year.
State Bank of India (SBI), Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and New India Assurance were among the buyers for the SUUTI stake in L&T, data provided by BSE showed. SBI bought shares worth Rs 865 crore at Rs 1764 per share, LIC picked up shares worth Rs 3,128 crore, while New India bought shares worth Rs 76 crore.
India is aiming to raise 725 billion rupees through the sale of partial government stakes in state-run and private firms during the year to March 2018, which will contribute to meeting the government's fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent of gross domestic product.
L&T shares were up 0.6 percent at 0800 GMT, outperforming a 0.4 percent fall in the broader NSE index.