The Indian Government has sold 10% of its stake in the state-owned Indian Oil (IOC) for Rs93.79bn ($1.4bn).
The sale is part of the government’s plan to raise as much as $11bn and narrow the fiscal deficit to 3.9% of gross domestic product targeted in 2015/16.
The government owns approximately 68.57% stake IOC , which has refining capacity of 65.7 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA), accounting to around 30.5% of refining capacity in the country.
The government has set the indicative price per share of Indian Oil at Rs387in the auction.
Press Trust of India reported that the proposal received over 287.4 million shares from potential bidders against the offered 242.8 million shares.
Bankers including CitiGroup, Deutsche Equities, Nomura, JM Financial and Kotak Securities are managing the sale process.
Earlier this year, the government divested stakes in Rural Electrification for Rs16.1bn ($240m); Power Finance for Rs16bn ($239.5m); and Dredging Corporation of India for Rs1.45bn ($21.7m), reported Business Standard.
Image: Indian Oil service station in Pipili, Odisha, India. Photo: courtesy of Bernard Gagnon / Wikipedia.