DIPAM secretary says govt has no plan to sell stake in ITC: Report

ITC shares were in focus in Tuesday's trade after a media report quoted Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary at Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), as suggesting the government does not plan to sell its indirectly held stake in ITC for now.

SUUTI held 97,45,31,427 shares, or 7.86 per cent stake in ITC as of December 31. That stake was valued at Rs 37,561.17 crore at Tuesday's ITC price of Rs 385.10 a piece.

The ITC scrip was up 2.9 per cent intraday amid another report by Economic Times that suggested the FMCG major was looking to export up to Rs 2,335 crore of raw tobacco to British American Tobacco (BAT) next fiscal year, a 17 per cent increase from the estimated shipments in fiscal 2023.

Pandey denied news reports that the government was looking to sell its ITC stake to help meet its divestment target for FY23. “News reports about planning stake sale are wrong stories,” Pandey told Moneycontrol.

Financial Express had earlier reported that the Centre was reviving a plan to sell part of its indirectly held stake in ITC and the transaction could even be completed in the current financial year.

The report had suggested that the government could easily meet its revised disinvestment target of Rs 50,000 crore for FY23, if the transaction happens before March.

To recall, divestment target for FY23 was earlier set at Rs 65,000 crore. But only Rs 31,106 crore divestments have been achieved thus far. They included Rs 20,516 crore proceeds from the LIC IPO, Rs 3,058 crore from ONGC's offer for sale, Rs 3,839 crore worth sale of Axis Bank shares held by SUUTI and Rs 2,723 crore from IRCTC's offer for sale.

 
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