By IANS,
Kolkata : State-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) will hit the primary market by mid-December, a company official said Friday.
“We want to list our company because this is the only public sector oil company that is not listed,” OIL chairman and managing director M.R. Pasrija told reporters.
He said this when he was asked if disinvestment plans would be deferred given the volatile market conditions.
“With listing we will get greater visibility,” he said, adding that the market regulator, the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), had cleared its initial public offer proposal.
“We have not decided on the price band yet nor have we decided how much money we will raise. But we have decided that we will issue 2.64 crore (26.4 million) shares,” he said.
This represents 10 percent of its shareholding.
At present, the central government holds 98.13 percent stake in the firm, with the remaining held by employees.
However, prior to taking the primary market route, OIL intends offloading 10 percent of its share to state-owned oil marketing majors: Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil in the ratio of 1:1:2.
After offloading the 10 percent stake to the public, employees will hold one percent and the government the remaining 78.5 percent.
OIL, which received Sebi’s approval Sep 11, has been asked to make the public offer within three months.
OIL is the second largest oil producing company in India. In 2007-08, it produced 10 percent of the total crude oil production of the country and 7 percent of total natural gas.