The IRCTC Share Price slipped and went down 5 per cent during early trading on Thursday following the government announcement of a stake sale of up to 5 per cent through an offer-for-sale (OFS) at a floor price of Rs 680 a share.
The IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) stock crashed as much as 5.56 per cent to hit a low of Rs 694.05 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) during the late morning deals, while it declined as much as 5.49 per cent to Rs 694.40 on the BSE.
On Wednesday evening, the railway ticketing and catering arm of the Indian Railways said the government will sell up to 5 per cent stake in the company. The stake sale is a part of the government’s divestment target for this fiscal. The government has raised Rs 28,383 crore from central public sector enterprises’ stake sale so far this fiscal against the full-year budget target of Rs 65,000 crore.
The government is looking to sell a 2.5 per cent stake in the state-owned firm at Rs 680 per share, with an option to additionally offload 2.5 per cent, IRCTC said in an exchange filing.
At the floor price of Rs 680 a share, the sale of 4 crore shares in IRCTC would fetch about Rs 2,700 crore to the exchequer. The floor price is at a discount of 7.47 per cent from Wednesday’s closing price of Rs 734.90 IRCTC on the NSE.
IRCTC OFS opens to subscription on Thursday, Will the IRCTC Share Price Show revival?
The OFS will open for subscription by institutional investors on Thursday and for retail investors on Friday.
At 10.17 am, the scrip was trading at Rs 701, down 4.6% against its previous day’s closing price of Rs 735 per share. The stock is up about 13% in the past six months, while it has fallen 17% year-to-date. However, IRCTC shares have given multibagger returns of 350% since its IPO listing in September 2019.
The government of India is expected to garner Rs 2,720 crore for the exchequer after offloading 5% of the stake.
The OFS will open for non-retail investors on Thursday, while retail investors can bid for shares on Friday, the government said in a release.
A minimum of 25% of the shares in OFS will be reserved for mutual funds and insurance companies, while 10% will be kept aside for retail investors.
