On Friday, the offer for sale (OFS) by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) opened for retail investors and was subscribed 19.68 times as of 11:50 am, according to data on the NSE website. The retail portion of the OFS had 585,179 shares available, and the company received a total of 2,30,297 share bids. At the time, HAL shares were trading at Rs 2,597.40 on NSE, which was up Rs 101.05 or 4.05%. The floor price of the issue was set at Rs 2,450 per equity share.
The non-retail portion of the HAL OFS had opened on Thursday and was subscribed 4.5 times. The Ministry of Finance announced yesterday that it would exercise the green shoe option, as the OFS had received a good response. The OFS comprised of a base issue size of 1.75% or 58.51 lakh shares, with an option to retain an equal quantum of oversubscription.
The government proposed on Wednesday to sell up to 3.5% in HAL at a floor price of Rs 2,450 per share. If fully subscribed, the OFS would fetch around Rs 2,800 crore to the exchequer. HAL is a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Defence Ministry, with the government currently holding 75.15% of the company.
The proceeds from the HAL OFS would add up to the government’s disinvestment kitty for the current fiscal. So far, the government has mopped up Rs 31,106.64 crore from disinvestment and share buyback in CPSEs. However, last month, the government had revised its estimates of disinvestment revenue for the current fiscal to Rs 50,000 crore, down from the budget target of Rs 65,000 crore.