New Delhi: The government has raised Rs14,500 crore through the Bharat 22 exchange traded fund (ETF), comprising 22 stocks, a top official said on Monday.
“We have decided to retain Rs14,500 crore of the total subscription that has come in for Bharat 22 ETF,” department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Neeraj Gupta said. The ETF saw bids of nearly Rs32,000 crore coming in, with foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bidding for one-third of the money. The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed 1.45 times; retirement funds 1.50 times and non-institutional investors (NIIs) and qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) seven times.
With this, the government has raised Rs52,500 crore through disinvestment in the current fiscal, including listing of insurance PSUs. Last week, the portion reserved for anchor investors was subscribed six times amounting to Rs12,000 crore. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund managed Bharat 22 ETF’s new fund offer (NFO) had an initial issue size of over Rs8,000 crore.
As much as 25% of total issue size, or Rs2,000 crore, was reserved for anchor investors who put in bids worth about Rs12,000 crore. LIC, Bank of India, SBI Pension Fund, EPFO and HDFC Ergo Insurance are among those who have put in bids. “During the three days reserved for non-anchor investors, we witnessed an overwhelming response from all investors, particularly retail segment. In due course, the ETF will be listed,” ICICI Prudential AMC managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Nimesh Shah said.
The issue opened for subscription for retail investors from 15-17 November. This Index is a unique blend of shares of key central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), public sector banks (PSBs) as also government shares in blue chip private companies like Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Axis Bank and ITC.
The shares of the government companies represent six core sectors of the economy – finance industry, energy, utilities, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and basic materials, making the index broad-based and diversified.
The government has set an ambitious target of raising Rs72,500 crore for disinvestment in the current fiscal. Of this, Rs46,500 crore is to be raised through minority stake sale in PSU and Rs15,000 crore from strategic sale. Another Rs11,000 crore is to come from listing of insurance companies.
The state-owned companies or PSUs that are part of the new Bharat 22 ETF include ONGC, IOC, SBI, BPCL, Coal India and Nalco. The other CPSEs on the list are Bharat Electronics, Engineers India, NBCC, NTPC, NHPC, SJVNL, GAIL, PGCIL and NLC India. Only three public sector banks – SBI, Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda – figure in the Bharat-22 index.
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