The Indian government expects to float the much delayed initial public share offering of the country’s largest carmaker, Maruti, a unit of Suzuki Motor, by June, the disinvestment minister said on Thursday, according to a Reuters report.
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The news agency said the government plans to sell 25% or 3.6 million shares of Maruti Udyog Ltd through a public offering that was first expected to be completed in March and later postoned to April-May because of the time taken to finalise the prospectus.
“The work is going on… I expect that in June or so we will be going to the market with those shares and that will be a boost to the primary issues sector,” Arun Shourie told lawmakers in parliament, according to Reuters.
The news agency said New Delhi-based Maruti, in which the government owns a 45.54% stake and Suzuki 54.2%, has more than half the share of the domestic car market with its small and low-priced cars.
The government hopes to raise between 7.0 billion rupees ($147 million) and 8.0 billion rupees through the sale of shares, Reuters said, adding that the proposed sale is a part of India’s privatisation drive that aims to collect $US2.5 billion through stake sales in the year to March 2003.
