By IANS,
Mumbai : The government-run Life Insurance Corporation of India picked up 37.71 crore shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in an auction last week taking its total stake in the company to 9.47 percent, a company statement said Monday.
LIC picked up 4.40 percent or 37,71,07,488 shares of ONGC in the auction held March 1, ONGC said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Before the auction, LIC stake in ONGC was 5.06 percent.
The government last week raised Rs.12,766.75 crore by divesting its 5 percent stake in ONGC through a stock market auction, the first ever in any public sector undertaking.
The auction was termed a failure because the government had reportedly forced LIC to bid for the shares at the last moment in view of a cold response from the private investors.
The company’s data now confirms it. Out of the valid bid of 42.77 crore shares, 37.71 crore or 88 percent was picked up by LIC.