CIL issue price fixed at Rs 245/share, govt to fetch Rs 15k cr

The government today fixed Coal India's mega IPO issue price at Rs 245 per share, the upper end of initial offer price range.

The government today fixed Coal India's mega IPO issue price at Rs 245 per share, the upper end of initial offer price range.

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The government would fetch over Rs 15,000 crore by issuing 63.16 crore shares of Coal India at a price of Rs 245
per share. It will offer a discount of five per cent to retail investors.

"The issue price has been fixed at Rs 245 per share. The government will raise over Rs 15,000 crore," Coal Minster
Sriprakash Jaiswal said after a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Ministers Pranab Mukherjee.

"It was a grand success. It happened for the first time in the history of India", Jaiswal added.

Besides Jaiswal and Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek
Sigh Ahluwalia were the also part of the EGoM.

The board of Coal India meeting is on to approve the issue price.

The company is expected to list on stock exchanges on November 4, with some fireworks a day before Diwali.

Coal India Ltd's initial public offer, which closed on October 21, made history by getting oversubscribed by 15.17
times mopping up Rs 2,35,290 crore. The IPO, which had a price band of Rs 225-245 per share, garnered total demand for over 960.36 crore shares, as against 63.16 crore on offer.

The public offer by the world's largest coal producer is part of the disinvestment programme of the government, which
would get about Rs 15,400 crore by selling 10 per cent of its stake in the company. The government holds 100 per cent equity in the coal major.

Marketmen said the CIL share would open at a fairly good premium.

"CIL deserves to trade at a premium to global coal peers given much lower volatility of earnings and large headroom to
raise prices in a supply-deficit environment," brokerage house CLSA said.

CIL is one of the largest companies in the world based on the coal reserves of 64,786 million tonnes as on April 2010.

"Going by the significant asset size, quality and life of the reserves and the dominance in domestic market, we believe
CIL has very good prospects in long term," Elara Securities analyst Ravindra Deshpande said.

Analysts said the huge response to the CIL issue will boost the government's disinvestment plans and will help speed
up stake-sale projects in the coming days.

The blockbuster share sale may be followed by Powergrid, Hindustan Copper, Manganese Ore India Ltd and SAIL among a few others in this fiscal.

Coal India IPO has broken the record set by Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Power, which had raised Rs 11,700 crore in January 2008.