Govt holding in ONGC at 69% after stake sale

Oil major ONGC on Tuesday said the government's holding in the company has come down by 4.91% to 69.23% following stake sale last week. Prior to the Offer for Sale, the government had 74.14% stake in ONGC.

The government sold 42.04 crore shares in ONGC and garnered Rs 12,766 crore, ONGC said in a filing on the BSE.

Of the 42.04 crore shares auctioned last week, state-owned insurance giant LIC picked up 37.71 crore shares in the company and its total holding has gone up to 9.48%.

Taking into account the average price of Rs 303.67 a share, the country's largest insurer would have invested around Rs 11,450 crore during the first ever auction of PSU shares on March 1.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has bought 37.71 crore shares representing 4.41% stake in ONGC through open market purchase.

The government auctioned 5% of its stake, or 44.77 crore shares, in ONGC on March 1.

While the ONGC auction was subscribed 98.3%, LIC has picked up over 84% of the shares on offer. The remaining was bought by institutional and retail investors.

With the acquisition of 4.41%, LIC's stake in ONGC has gone up to 9.48%, the filing added. As per the Insurance regulator IRDA guidelines, an insurance firm's holding should not exceed 10% in any company.