“The sale offer on IRCTC opens tomorrow for non-retail investors. Day 2 for retail investors. The government would divest 15% of the capital with a 5% green shoe option,” said the secretary of the Department of Investment and Management of Public Assets, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, in a tweet. .
The promoter proposes to sell up to 2,40,00,000 shares of IRCTC’s capital stock, representing up to 15% participation, with an option to additionally sell 80,00,000 shares, representing 5% of the total issued and paid-up share capital he said the company in a regulatory filing.
The minimum bid price will be Rs 1,367, he said.
IRCTC shares closed on Wednesday at Rs 1,618.05 each on the BSE, down 1.55% from its previous close.
In total, the promoting government of India will sell 3.2 million shares, which is expected to generate 4,374 crore for the private treasury of funds due to the Covid-19 crisis.
IRCTC OFS will help the government advance towards meeting the divestment target of Rs 2.10 crore. Of this, Rs 1.20 crore will come from the divestment of public sector companies and another Rs 90bn from the sale of shares in financial institutions.
The government currently owns an 87.40% stake in IRCTC. To comply with SEBI’s public participation standard, the government has to reduce its stake in the company to 75%.
IRCTC, the only entity licensed by Indian Railways to provide catering services, online train tickets, and packaged drinking water at train and railway stations in India, was listed on the stock exchanges in October 2019. The company had raised Rs 645 crore through the IPO.
In April 2017, the Union Cabinet approved the listing of five railway companies. While four of them – IRCON International Ltd., RITES Ltd., Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd., and IRTC – have already been listed, IRFC is likely to put this fiscal block on the block.
