Government To Raise Rs 3,000 Crore From 1.5% Stake Sale In ONGC

The government is all set to raise Rs 3,000 crore from its stake sale of 1.5 per cent in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), India's largest oil and gas production company, with the offer for sale (OFS) open on March 30 and 31, according to a regulatory filing.

The reserve price set for the OFS is Rs 159 a share, which suggests about a 7 per cent discount from the ONGC stock's closing price of Rs 171 on the NSE on Tuesday. ONGC shares fell over 3 per cent on Tuesday from 176.35 on Monday.

ONGC employees can apply for equity shares worth up to Rs 5 lakh each, the filing said, adding that 0.075 per cent of equity shares sold in the OFS would be offered to eligible employees at the cut-off price, the company said in stock exchange filing on Tuesday.

In the OFS, a minimum of 25 per cent of the shares are reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies, while 10 per cent is earmarked for retail investors.

The government, which owns over 60 per cent stake in ONGC, is the promoter selling 0.75 per cent of the total paid-up equity share capital, or up to 94,352,094 equity shares of the company, of its stake in the company.

The bids are open to non-retail investors today and retail investors (who are defined as investors who bid for not more than 2 lakh shares) tomorrow, and if oversubscribed, it has kept the option to sell 94,352,094 equity shares additionally.

The OFS comes a day after ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, sold at least one cargo of Russian Sokol oil to state refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation after failing to draw interest in a tender earlier this month.

Indian companies are snapping up Russian oil as it is available at deep discounts after some companies and countries shunned purchases from Moscow due to sanctions against Russia for its Ukraine invasion.

The world's third-biggest oil consumer and importer, India, has not banned Russian oil imports.