The government has kicked off the 2020-21 disinvestment programme with defence manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL). The Rs 5,000-crore offer for sale (OFS) on Thursday saw oversubscription in the institutional investor segment with bids for 42.6 million shares as against 40.13 million on offer. About Rs 4,257 crore worth of bids have been received so far and the centre will be hoping that retail investors — those investing up to Rs 200,000 — will place bids worth at least Rs 750 crore. About 10 million shares reserved for retail investors will be auctioned on Friday.
The base price for the OFS has been set at Rs 1,001 per share, a discount of 15 per cent over Wednesday’s close of Rs 1,178. The stock, however, fell 14. 2 per cent on Thursday to end at Rs 1,011 per share as traders mounted arbitrage bets.
