The government on Wednesday expressed confidence about the success of the ensuing public issue of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, with Divestment Minister Arun Shourie saying that all the public offerings in the last few days had attracted oversubscription of upto 11.5 times.
"I do not agree with analysts who are telling us about bunching. Despite bunching of public issues, the floats had been oversubscribed from 1.5 times to 11.5 times...I am sure that ONGC will go the same way," Shourie told reporters on the sidelines of 'Made in Pakistan' exhibition organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, in New Delhi.
He said there would be a strong retail response for ONGC based on the strength of the company.
Shourie said advisors for the ONGC issue had proposed the use of participatory notes for getting big investors.
"Participatory notes is really for getting big investors; not the retail investors...because associate companies of advisors were not allowed under the existing rules. So in this case because advisors also have contacts they wanted that everyone's contacts should work as it is an unprecedented large issue," he said.
The government has decided to offload 10 per cent stake in ONGC through a public offer of 14.25 crore (142.5 million) shares. The public offer is scheduled to open on March 5.
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