Privatisation bid: India upbeat on reaching targets

The government raised $144 million by selling 5.58% of Hindustan Copper through a stock exchange auction.

NEW DELHI: India says it is hopeful of meeting its privatisation target even though state-run financial institutions had to bail out its sale of a stake in a state-run copper miner. The cash-strapped government raised $144 million by selling 5.58% of Hindustan Copper through a stock exchange auction, exceeding its goal of unloading at least 4% of the company. The sale of the stake in Hindustan Copper marked a belated start to the government’s privatisation drive for this fiscal year. Most of the bids for Hindustan Copper came from state-run institutions – underscoring continuing weak retail investor appetite – even though the stake was sold at a deeply discounted price. The government urgently needs to raise capital from privatisation as it struggles to rein in a ballooning deficit that threatens to exceed a targeted 5.3% of gross domestic product.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2012.