Govt starts divestment early, to sell 10% in Nalco tomorrow

Government will open the first divestment account tomorrow with up to 10 per cent stake sale in National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and may mop up over Rs 600 crore.

In an exchange filing Nalco told BSE that the promoters (government owns 74.58 percent and the rest with the public) will sell 5 per cent aggregating 9.67 crore equity shares, through an offer for sale (OFS) tomorrow. 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 Rs 34,000 crore by divesting its stake in nearly a dozen state-run companies.

The issue price has been set at Rs 67 a share, Nalco said in the filing. The stock was close at Rs 73.45 on the BSE today.

The offer will open on April 19 for non-retail investors and April 20 for retail investors, a company official said.

The aluminium major earlier announced that it has posted 16.8 per cent growth in bauxite production upto 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 per cent and the aluminium metal sales grew by 2.68 per cent. With the aluminium market firming up the Navaratna unit foresees sunny days ahead and is planning to increase its cast metal production by 12 per cent in the next fiscal, it said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)