Government gets Rs 3,449 crore from Hindustan Zinc offer for sale

The government has raised Rs 3,449 crore through offer-for-sale (OFS) in Hindustan Zinc Ltd by selling about 1.6 per cent stake.

Through the two-day OFS on November 6-7, the government had proposed to sell over 5.28 crore shares, or 1.25 per cent stake, with a greenshoe option to retain additional subscriptions of a similar amount.

As per the official data, the government has raised Rs 3,449.18 crore from the OFS. On the first day of the share sale offer on November 6, the institutional investors had placed bids for close to Rs 3,400 crore shares or about 1.58 per cent stake.

Retail investors' demand was somewhat muted on November 7. The government, which held a 29.54 per cent stake in HZL before the OFS, is the largest minority shareholder in the Vedanta Group firm.

The proceeds from the HZL stake sale helped to increase the disinvestment coffers of the government. In the current fiscal so far, Rs 8,625 crore has been mopped up through minority stake sales by the government.

This includes Rs 2,346 crore raised through OFS of GIC and Rs 2,015 crore from Cochin Shipyard. Another Rs 815 crore was mobilised by way of remittances from SUUTI.