HAL to sell 10% stake to public soon

Bengaluru, Feb 15 (IANS) State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is set to go public soon to sell 10 per cent of equity shares of Rs 10 face value, a top official said on Sunday.

"We will soon make Initial Public Offering (IPO) to sell 36.1 million shares, which are equivalent to 10 per cent of the holding by the government. The draft prospectus is ready for filing with the market regulator (Sebi) and have appointed the book-running lead managers," HAL Chairman T. Suvarna Raju told reporters here.

The government, which owns the defence behemoth, has diluted 25 per cent (120.5 million shares) of its full holding through buy-back and collected Rs 5,265 crore, including Rs 981 as tax from the company, during the last fiscal (2015-16).

Post-IPO, the government holding in the company will be 65 per cent.

"The valuation process is underway to fix the issue price for the IPO. We hope to do by the end of this fiscal (2016-17) or during the ensuing fiscal (2017-18)," asserted Raju.

The cash-rich firm paid Rs 750 crore as dividend to the government for fiscal 2015-16.

"We are also planning to raise additional funds from banks in the ensuing months to partly meet our capital expenditure of Rs 17,500 crore budgeted over the next 5-6 years," he said on the sidelines of the biennial Aero India 2017 expo at the Yelahanka base of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on the city's northern outskirts.

The company has posted sales turnover of Rs 10,086 crore till January as against the target of Rs 17,100 crore for fiscal 2016-17 and gross profit of Rs 1,621 crore, which is projected to be 7.4 per cent higher over the last fiscal (2015-16), when it registered Rs 16,736 crore and gross profit of Rs 3,288 crore.

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