Govt may divest more stake in Coal India, says finance ministry official

Another tranche of share sale in Coal India (CIL), the largest coal producer in the world, is "not ruled out", a finance ministry official told television channel CNBC-TV18 on Monday.

Aradhana Johri, divestment secretary at the ministry, did not specify any time-frame for the share sale in the state-run miner, which is nearly 80 per cent owned by the government.

The government still needs to sell about just over per cent of its stake in CIL to bring down its holding to 75 per cent in listed state-run firms, as stipulated the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

In January, the government raised about US $3.6 billion by selling a 10 per cent stake in Coal India, the largest-ever equity deal in the domestic market.

(Reuters)