The government has advised Coal India that the deadline for a minimum 25% public holding has been deferred by two years since the stock has underperformed, the Economic Times report suggested quoting company executives.
Last week Business Standard had reported that the capital markets regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has extended the August 21 deadline by another two years. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT
The government holds 78.32% in Coal India which is 3.32% short of the 25% mandatory public holding mark.
In past six months, Coal India has underperformed the market by falling 7% as compared to 13% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.
Coal India had posted a strong 61% rise in its net profit at Rs 37.86 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, backed by increased sales, particularly to the power sector and an increase in coal prices in its e-auctions. The net profit in the similar quarter of the last fiscal year stood at Rs 23.51 billion.
“As the concerns related to grade slippage and inability to rationalise costs are behind, we believe that investors would not be as worried given better earnings outlook and attractive valuations (EV/EBITDA at 5x FY20e),” analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher said in a report.
“Driven by strong volume outlook and steady realisations, we expect EBITDA to grow at CAGR of 21% in FY18-FY20e,” the brokerage firm said with reiterate BUY and target price of Rs 340 per share.
Meanwhile, CRISIL Research expects revival in power demand, commissioning of coal-based capacities, pick up in industrial activities to boost domestic non-cooking coal demand.
The consumption of non-coking coal expect to clock a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 5.4% to around 1,076 million tonne (MT) in fiscal 2023 from 826 MT in fiscal 2018. This would be driven by a 6.5% CAGR in coal-based power generation.