Govt to sell five per cent stake in Power Finance tomorrow

Government will sell a 5 per cent stake in state-run Power Finance on Monday in a stock market transaction that could raise up to $267 million for the central government, as per the current market value.

New Delhi will sell about 66 million shares of the company, said a government notice to the exchanges on Friday. Power Finance shares ended 0.2 per cent lower on Friday at Rs 259.55.

The Power Finance share offering is part of the government's budget target to raise as much as $11 billion from divestment of its stake in state-run companies. The government has missed its divestment target for the last five years in a row.

The proceeds from the asset sale programme are critical for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's plan to narrow the fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the 2015/16 fiscal year that began in April.

(Reuters)