India is fast-tracking efforts to sell stakes in some of its largest state-owned companies, including the nation’s biggest life insurer, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration looks to bolster public finances strained by high oil prices.
Life Insurance Corp. of India, Hindustan Zinc Ltd., and several state-controlled banks are among eight companies identified by officials for stake sales in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter. A share-sale in LIC alone may raise as much as 100 billion rupees ($1.05 billion), while Hindustan Zinc could fetch another 50 billion rupees for the government, Bloomberg reported earlier.
Officials overseeing the stake-sale program have been holding weekly meetings with investment bankers to gauge investor demand, determine pricing and finalize timelines for future offerings, said the people asking not to be identified as the matter is private. They also said more bankers are being hired to prepare additional state-run companies for future sales.
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