NEW DELHI: India said Friday it will sell a 10 per cent stake in top performing state-run refiner Indian Oil Corporation, the latest effort to raise money to plug the fiscal deficit. The government, which owns 68 per cent of the company, will sell 240 million shares through a stock market auction, it said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay stock exchange.
The sale is expected to raise more than Rs.95 billion ($1.5 billion) based on the current price of the stock. The government is seeking to raise as much as $11 billion this fiscal year by selling stakes in its string of state-run companies, in a bid to narrow the fiscal deficit. Earlier this month, the government said it was aiming to sell a 10 per cent stake in giant Coal India that experts said was valued at around $3.7 billion.
Indian Oil is the country’s largest refiner with annual sales of around $73 billion. It has outperformed the market this year, reaping the benefits of lower global crude prices.
