IOC follow-on issue by January-end
New Delhi   20-Nov-2010

State-owned IndianOil on Friday said it expects to launch its follow-on public offer (FPO) in the third or fourth week of January.

"IOC’s follow-on public offer (FPO) would be expected in the third or fourth week of January," chairman B M Bansal told reporters.

The government plans to offload 10% of its equity holding in the state-run refiner through the FPO and an equal stake would be diluted by the PSU company. Following the stake sale, the government’s holding in IOC would reduce to 64.57% from the existing 78.92%.

IOC’s share sale programme is expected to garner close to Rs 20,000 crore. The company said it has hired six investment banks — Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, ICICI Securities, Morgan Stanley, SBI Capital and UBS to manage the public offer. The mega offer is a part of the government’s Rs 40,000 crore disinvestment plan this fiscal.