Union Cabinet Agreed on Ten Per Cent Disinvestment in MOIL

The Indian Union Cabinet gave green signal for 10 per cent disinvestment in Manganese Ore India Ltd. (MOIL) through an initial public offering (IPO) as well as share sale of 5 per cent each by the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments on 8 Sept 2010. MOIL operates ten mines- six are located in Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. The disinvestment by Centre and State is fixed at 20%. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved of the 10% disinvestment of Central Government Equity. The IPO would comprise a quota for employees who would get 5 per cent discount on the offer value of the IPO. The retail investors would also get 5% discount. In MOIL, the Union Government holds 81.57 per cent, the Maharashtra Government 9.62 per cent and the Madhya Pradesh Government 8.81 stake. After the selling of shares Centre's equity in the company will be reduced to 71.57 per cent, while that of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh will be 4.62 per cent and 3.81 per cent. For the process, the government has shortlisted IDBI Capital, Edelweiss Capital and JP Morgan to manage the public issue; Fox Mandal was shortlisted as the legal advisor for the issue.