Floor price for Gail offer fixed at Rs 185

The government on Wednesday fixed a floor price of Rs 185 per share for the ensuing Gail public offer and offered a 5 per cent discount to retail investors.

Announcing the floor price, disinvestment secretary Dhirender Singh said that retail investors would be eligible for discount of 5 per cent over the price offered to institutional bidders. The Gail public offer entailing 8.45 crore shares is slated to open on February 27 and close on March 5. Gail scrip prices closed at Rs 196 on BSE down by 5 per cent over Tuesday’s closing. However, when asked whether government was concerned over the 5 per cent dip in scrip prices, Singh said “no we are not concerned, market would stabilise”.

Gail is the fifth public offer made by government following IPCL, CMC, IBP and Dredging, bidding for which are currently underway. Five per cent of shares have been kept aside for employees while 50 per cent of the offer has been set aside for qualified buyers and another 25 per cent for high net worth bidders besides 25 per cent for retail investors.