The plans were unveiled in a stock exchange announcement on Wednesday. Coal India initially aims to sell more than 315.8 million shares at 10 rupees each in one tranche, and flagged the option to sell another 315.8 million.
It said those amounts were collectively 10% of the total paid up equity share of Coal India.
“The [initial] sale shall take place on a separate window of the stock exchanges and shall commence on January 30, 2015, at 9.15am and shall close on the same date at 3.30pm Indian Standard Time,” Coal India announced.
According to AFP yesterday, the Indian government has struggled to reach target of raising $10 billion in asset sales this financial year and the Coal India stake would raise up to $3.9 billion at “current market prices”.
“The latest move could, however, see miners up in arms again just weeks after millions of workers went on strike over the plan to open the sector to competition, which they said would lead to job cuts,” the newswire reported.
“The unions relented after the coal minister assured them there were no plans to privatise state-run Coal India, which has a near monopoly over production and employs 3.4 million workers.”
The Indian government owns almost 90% of Coal India.
