<div> The government said on Thursday, 7 February, 2013 that it is satisfied with the response to NTPC's share sale and expects to garner more than Rs 11,500 crore from the offer -- the biggest disinvestment mop up so far this fiscal. </div><div> </div><div>A share auction in state-run power utility NTPC Ltd was fully covered taking the government closer to its target of raising money through stake sales in state enterprises to lower its fiscal deficit.</div><div> </div><div>"The government is satisfied with the response to this (NTPC) offer. We expect more than Rs 11,500 crore from the issue," Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur said here after the offer closed for subscription. </div><div> </div><div>The total demand received is for 132.84 crore shares and indicative price is Rs 145.91. Thus, the offer has been subscribed 1.7 times, he said. </div><div> </div><div>Sharing further details, Mathur said there was good participation from foreign institutional investors (FIIs). </div><div> </div><div>"One FII bid for 1,000 crore shares in the early hours of the trade. More order inflow came in towards the end of the day. Individually, FIIs have put in USD 50-100 million," he said. </div><div> </div><div>By 3:30 p.m., the single-day auction had received bids for 1,328.46 million shares at an indicative weighted average price of Rs 145.91 per share, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed. Final bid numbers will be released later on Thursday.</div><div> </div><div>The government was selling 783.26 million shares, or 9.5 per cent of the company's stock, at a minimum price of Rs 145 per share for bids. Before the offer, it held 84.5 per cent of the company.</div><div> </div><div>The NTPC offer follows a $585 million share sale in state explorer Oil India Ltd (OILI.NS) last week and another $1.1 billion in state miner NMDC (NMDC.NS) last December.</div><div> </div><div>Selling shares in state companies is a key element of the government's plan to bring down its fiscal deficit to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product by the end of March, from 5.8 percent in 2011/12, to avoid a credit downgrade from global ratings agencies.</div><div> </div><div>New Delhi aims to raise a total of $5.1 billion through stake sales in the current fiscal year ending March. The government has raised nearly $4 billion, and wants to sell shares in at least four more state companies by March-end.</div><div> </div><div>NTPC is India's largest power generation company with capacity of nearly 40,000 megawatts. It aims to more than treble generation capacity by 2032.</div><div> </div><div>So far this fiscal the government has already raised over Rs 10,000 crore through stake sale in PSUs like Oil India, NMDC and HCL.<br /><br />(Agencies)<br /><br /> </div>
