The government has asked the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) to give a specific proposal for its proposed follow on public offering (FPO).
The government presently holds 85.82% stake in SAIL and 4.59% is with the Life insurance Corporation while the rest is held by the public.
SAIL has earlier sought an approval from the steel ministry for a Follow-on-Offer (FPO) to part finance its Rs 70,000 crore expansion programme. Once the specific proposal is submitted it would be taken up with the finance ministry as the government is likely to divest part of its holding at the time of public offer.
SAIL has a capital expenditure programme of about Rs 10,300 crore for the current fiscal. The company is in the process of expanding its annual production capacity to about 23 million tonnes by 2012 from the present 14 million tonnes.
The board of the company will be considering the specific proposal at a meeting later this month.