Bharat Electronics starts offer for sale on Wednesday

The government is finally going ahead with its much-awaited stake sale in the aerospace and defence manufacturer-Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) at a floor price of Rs 1,498 per share. The government will divest 5 per cent of its stake, thereby moving towards its revised disinvestment target of Rs 45,500 crore.

This would be the third disinvestment move by the government within the span of a month, after a bumper response to CPSE ETF and MOIL sale, where government was successfully able to raise Rs 6,000 & Rs 450 crore, respectively. The sale of 1.11 crore shares will be at a minimum price of Rs 1,498, which is 4 per cent discount to Tuesday's closing price of BEL. The government currently holds 74.41 per cent stake in BEL, which post the offer will come down to 69.41 per cent.

The government is on track to achieve its revised disinvestment target comfortably post stake sale in ITC, which helped it raised around Rs 6,700 crore.

Share of BEL was trading at Rs 1,521, down 2.5 per cent on NSE.