BEL stake sale begins today; floor price at `1,498/share

THE GOVERNMENT will begin on Wednesday 5 per cent stake sale in state-owned aerospace and defence company Bharat Electronics Ltd to raise about Rs 1,600 crore.

The sale of 1.11 crore shares will be at a minimum price of Rs 1,498 apiece, 4 per cent discount to Tuesday’s closing price of BEL on BSE. The share sale will be through an offer for sale (OFS) spread over two days - first day for institutional investors and the second day, on Thursday, for retail investors, a top official said.

The government currently holds 74.41 per cent stake in BEL, which has a market cap of Rs 34,843.5 crore.

This will be the second government OFS in 2017, the last being the sale of its 10 per cent in MOIL raising Rs 480 crore.