Government may soon divest 10% stake in Coal India

The Government of India may soon divest 10% stake in state-owned mine producer Coal India in line with its disinvestment target. 

If it sells the stake to trim its holding to 69%, it could raise up to Rs 20,000 crore, a report by the Economic Times said. "...a move that will help it earn about Rs 20,000 crore at today’s prices and reduce its stake to 69%," it noted.

Last month, the Centre had divested about 0.668% equity stake in Coal India through placement of shares to central public sector enterprises-exchange traded fund (CPSE ETF). 

The government currently holds about 79.11% in Coal India. It has a go-ahead to trim its holding by 10% in the company. 

While announcing the government's plan of listing five general insurance companies on January 18, 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had said that the government had launched a follow on public offer for its CPSE ETF mandated to invest in 10 PSUs. 

Jaitley added that the government was looking to raise about Rs 6,000 crore in the public offer, among which included a greenshoe option of Rs 1,500 crore. 

Coal India was among the 10 PSUs selected under CPSE ETF. Other state-run companies were - Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, GAIL (India),  Rural Electrification Corporation, Oil India, Indian Oil, Power Finance, Container Corporation of India, Bharat Electronics and Engineers India.

In his Budget speech, Jaitely said, “The government plans to raise about Rs 72,500 crore through disinvestment of central public sector enterprises (CPSE) in 2017-18.”

Recently, Coal India reported 20.25% year-on-year (YoY) decline in its consolidated net profit for third quarter ended December 31, 2016, result. 

The company reported consolidated net profit Rs 2,884.46 crore compared to net profit of Rs 3,617.17 crore in the similar period of previous year.

At 9.27 am, shares of Coal India were trading at Rs 316.45 per piece on BSE, down by 2.56%.