The Finance Ministry has invited bids for the empanelment of merchant bankers and legal advisors for assisting the government in CPSE disinvestment transactions undertaken through OFS and stock market dribbling. The bids have been invited in four categories -- A++, A+, A and B, based on the size of the transaction.

To be eligible for empanelment in the A++ category, which is an OFS transaction size of more than Rs 2,000 crore, interested merchant bankers would be required to have completed at least one equity market transaction of the size of Rs 2,000 crore.

For empanelment for managing OFS transaction size of Rs 750 crore to Rs 2,000 crore (A+), and less than Rs 750 crore (A), the interested merchant banker would be required to have managed at least one capital market transaction of Rs 750 crore and Rs 500 crore respectively between April 2020 and till now.

In the fourth category, which is B, interested merchant bankers would be involved in the sale of CPSE shares on the stock exchanges (Dribbling).

The minimum experience for bidders in this category would be of five years in share broking. The bidder should have a minimum net worth (including that of its parent entity) of at least Rs 25 crore.

The merchant bankers and selling brokers would be empanelled for two years.

“The Government of India (GOI) envisages disinvesting its shareholding in CPSEs through the Offer for Sale through Stock Exchange Mechanism/sale of Shares in the stock market (Dribbling) from time to time for which this Request for Proposal (RFP) for Empanelment of MBSBs is being floated,” the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said.