CIL to meet Sebi on Feb 19, 11% sell-off likely

A clearer picture on the roadmap for Coal India public offer will emerge after the officials of Coal India Limited, coal ministry and department of disinvestment meet the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India on February 19.

"We are meeting Sebi on February 19 and then a clearer picture on the timing will emerge though our internal target is to complete the initial public offering by this calender year," CIL chairman and managing director Partha S Bhattacharyya said in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Bhattacharyya, speaking on the sidelines of the Indian Chamber of Commerce-organised Third Northeast and East Power Summit 2010 in Kolkata on Tuesday, also said there are some issues on offering shares to employees and land-losers of areas it acquired for mining.

"The offer to employees will be resolved soon," he said, adding the issue of land-losers is yet to be resolved.

However, he expressed the hope that it will not disturb the IPO process. This means that the land-losers may not get any preferential allotment in the first round of IPO.

On CIL proposing to reserve only one per cent of the share for its 400,000 employees in seven subsidiaries as employees share purchase scheme against the earlier proposal of 2 per cent, Bhattacharyya said, "The government will offer 10 per cent to the public; any offering to employees or land-losers will be above that."

This gives a strong hint that the proposed IPO will be of 11 per cent instead of the earlier plan of 15 per cent (10 per cent public, 2 per cent employees and 3 per cent land losers).