The Hindu : Govt. may fix ONGC share price at Rs. 750

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 13, 2004

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Govt. may fix ONGC share price at Rs. 750

NEW DELGI, MARCH 12. The Government may mop up over Rs. 10,400 crores from ONGC public offering, with the Union Disinvestment Minister, Arun Shourie, not ruling out selling price of Rs. 750 per share at which the public offer has been oversubscribed over three times, a day before the issue closes.

Asked if the Government could announce selling price at Rs. 750, going by the three times oversubscription, Mr. Shourie said, "Why not...We will try to take care of interest of everyone including retail investors.''

In case the Government cuts the book at Rs. 750 per share, the mop-up from the six issues would amount to Rs. 13,983 crores which could result in total mobilisation of Rs. 15,313 crores against a target of Rs. 14,500 crores set for the financial year.

Prior to the six public offerings in IPCL, IBP, CMC, Dredging Coproration of India (DCIL), GAIL, and most recently the ONGC issue, which is slated to close tomorrow, the Government had mopped up about Rs. 1,330 crores, till November.

Mr. Shourie said the software glitch at the BSE might have jacked up the figures as many of the bids would have been double-counted.

However, the net figures available with him through the merchant bankers still established it clearly that the ONGC and other IPOs were great hits with the investors.

He expressed confidence that the market regulator SEBI and the Exchange itself would look into the software glitch as the prestige of the bourse was at stake.

He cited the example of GAIL which was oversubscribed 9.1 times at the floor price of Rs. 185 and seven times at the upper band of Rs. 195. By every standard, this is a great achievement for the country, he added.

— PTI

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