The total buyback size was Rs 587 crore, which was fully subscribed. EIL’s board had approved buyback in December last year.
“The public sector enterprise continues to be government owned company with 51.32% holding,” Pandey said.
The company’s scrip fell 3.51% to close at Rs 71.4 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
EIL is among several buybacks that the government has asked public sector enterprises to undertake.
So far, Rites, KIOCL, NTPC and
have undertaken share re-purchases, amounting to Rs 173 crore, Rs 156 crore, Rs 1,065 crore and Rs 1,375.65 crore respectively, as per government data.
The proceeds from disinvestment currently stand at Rs 19,499 crore. The government wants public sector undertakings to either meet their targets for capital expenditure or “reward the shareholder in the form of a dividend” or share buybacks.
It had also issued instructions to PSEs to give out dividends to stakeholders on a quarterly basis rather than half yearly or annual.
The government continues to struggle to achieve the revised target set as per the revised estimates in the Budget.
For the current financial year ending March, the government expects to raise Rs 32,000 crore through the disinvestment processes, which includes offers for sale and strategic divestment. The earlier target was to raise a record Rs 2.1 lakh crore.
