The OFS, which opened for retail investors on Friday, was subscribed 1.4 times, with the government getting bids for over 3.8 crore shares against 2.5 crore shares on offer. The bids were received at an indicative price of Rs 70 a share.
In trade on Friday, shares of NHPC were trading over 3% higher than the previous close on the National Stock Exchange at Rs 73.30.
On Thursday, the OFS received an overwhelming response from institutional investors, such that the government decided to exercise the greenshoe option and sell an additional 1% stake in the renewable energy major.
The government has received bids for over 91 crore shares from institutional investors, against 22.6 crore shares on offer. The bids were received at an indicative price of Rs 68.50 apiece, a tad higher than the floor price.
On Wednesday, the government announced plans to sell 251,125,870 shares, representing a 2.5% stake in NHPC and set the floor price at Rs 66 apiece. The government said it would sell an additional 100,450,348 shares, representing a 1% stake, in case of an oversubscription.
As of December-end, the government held nearly 71% stake in the PSU major. The government has successfully sold stakes through OFS in Coal India, Hindustan Aeronautics, Housing and Urban Development Corporation, IRCON International, Rail Vikas Nigam, and SJVN so far in the current fiscal year, aided by the strong momentum in equities.
While the secondary stake sale in all these companies was successful, the government will still fall short of meeting its divestment target for the current fiscal year.
The Union Budget for FY24 had set a disinvestment target of Rs 51,000 crore. However, the government has raised a little over Rs 10,000 crore so far. The last OFS that the government did was in SJVN in September, through which it raised Rs 1,349 crore.
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