The Centre moved ₹6,700 crore closer its disinvestment revenue target of ₹45,500 crore for this fiscal year by selling 2 per cent of its holding in ITC through the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
The Centre sold 24.25 crore shares in the FMCG major ITC to LIC at ₹275.85 apiece.
At the end of December, SUUTI had held 11.12 per cent of ITC’s shares, or 134.51 crore shares. After the deal, SUUTI’s shareholding in ITC comes to just over 9 per cent.
With the disinvestment target for this fiscal set at ₹45,500 crore, the latest transaction means about ₹39,000 crore of this has been met.
Before this, the government had raised ₹6,000 crore by selling units in certain central public sector enterprises through the ETF mechanism. The fund offer was hugely oversubscribed by the public. The ETF is being managed by Reliance Mutual Fund.
SUUTI, formed in 2003, holds stakes in 51 companies, eight of which are unlisted. Before ITC, the government had sold 1.6 per cent of SUUTI’s shareholding in L&T to garner ₹2,096.35 crore.