The government on Wednesday said it has sold a five per cent stake in the public sector reinsurance company, the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), with an enthusiastic response from investors to the offer for sale.
The stake sale is expected to garner about ₹3,000 crore to the exchequer, taking the total proceeds from five PSU disinvestments so far in the current fiscal to around ₹16,000 crore.
Non-retail investors oversubscribed the offer for sale (OFS) on Tuesday, putting in bids worth ₹4,000 crore. The OFS opened for retail investors on Wednesday.
“Offer for Sale (OFS) in GIC Re closed with enthusiastic response from the investors. Government of India has divested 5 per cent of its stake in GIC Re with full subscription of the base and green-shoe offer,” Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Arunish Chawla said on X.
Through the two-day OFS at a floor price of ₹352 per share, the government proposed to divest 2 per cent of equity holding in GIC, with an additional 3 per cent as a green shoe option, taking the total stake dilution to 5 per cent, equivalent to over 8.77 crore shares.
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The floor price was at a 9.36 per cent discount to Monday’s closing price. GIC shares settled 7.65 per cent lower at ₹358.65 on the BSE.
The government has already raised ₹13,389 crore through stake sales in public sector undertakings (PSUs) so far in the current fiscal. This includes ₹5,542 crore from Coal India, ₹4,357 crore from NHPC, ₹2,266 crore from Central Bank of India and ₹1,223 crore from NLC India.
The government has already readied a pipeline for PSU disinvestment and hopes to exceed the budgeted target of ₹80,000 crore from PSU stake sales and asset monetisation in FY 2026-27.
Source: Business-Standard