An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has approved sale of a 10 per cent stake in state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).
The EGom, headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, approved the sale of IOC stake worth $800 million through a block deal on the stock exchanges.
Announcing that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
(ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) will buy the IOC stake, Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae said the transaction is likely
"within the next week or so" .
The EGoM had on January 9 deferred its decision on the stake sale in the face of opposition from both the petroleum ministry and the PSU on the grounds that the market price of the scrip was low due to volatile market conditions.
This option of fellow PSUs picking up IOC shares now breaks the earlier impasse on the sale issue.
The government has a disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for the current financial year.
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