Government shortlists 17 bankers for BHEL

The government has shortlisted 17 merchant banks including ICICI Securities, SBI Caps and Goldman Sachs, for offloading 5 per cent stake in BHEL which will fetch over Rs.4700 crore at current price. The proposed governments offloading of five per cent stake at BHEL is part of the Centre's ambitious programme to op up Rs.40,000 Crore through disinvestment  in the current fiscal. Besides the above stated banks it also includes DSP Merrill Lynch (Bank of America), Enam Securities, Credit Suisse India, JM Financials, UBS Securities, Citi Bank, RBS, Nomura,IDFC, Capital Market Services and Edelweiss Capital have also been shortlisted, according to the department of disinvestment. A the end of June, the government held 67.72 per cent stake in BHEL. Nine merchant bank is to make their presentation regarding FPO on July 18, while the other eight entities woulddo the same on July 19, as per the report of department of disinvestment. BHEL's consolidated net profit jumped 40 per cent to Rs.6,053.36 crore in 2010-11. The state-run said entity had said on May that the board of directors of the company has recommented disinvestment of 5 per cent of the paid-up equity in BHEL out of the government of India's shareholding. The government has mopped up more than Rs.1100 crore by divesting five per cent equity in Power Finance Corporation (PFC). The government aims to generate R.95000 crore between 2011-12 and 2013-14 from selling its equities in state-run enterprise. In the last fiscal, disinvestments ranked in Rs.22,762.96 crore. Reported by        AR