To encourage participation of small investors in PSU disinvestments, government has decided to double the quota reserved for retail investors to 20 per cent for the forthcoming stake sales in bluechip companies like ONGC and Coal India.
The decision assumes significance following the enthusiastic response from retail investors in the Friday's stake sale in steel major SAIl, which fetched the government Rs 1,715 crore. "In the forthcoming OFS, 20 per cent of the offer size shall be reserved for retail investors," said an official .
So far 10 per cent of the share sale was reserved for retail investors, who are allowed to invest up to Rs 2 lakh in the OFS. Also a 5 per cent discount was offered to them over the bid price.
However, in Follow on Public Offer (FPO), 35 per cent is reserved for small investors.The response of retail investors to PSU disinvestments had not been encouraging in the past with the 10 per cent reserved quota barely managing to get fully subscribed.