NTPC's follow-on public offer to open on 3 February

The sale of five per equity in state-run power utility NTPC will begin on 3 February while the price band will be fixed a day earlier, the company said today.

The public offer of 412,273,220 equity shares comprises a net offer to the public of 408,000,000 equity shares and an employee reservation portion of 4,273,220 equity shares.

"The floor price and the minimum bid lot for the offer will be decided at least one day prior to the opening of the offer. A total of 42,73,220 equity shares are reserved for NTPC employees," the company said.

In a red herring prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday, NTPC, a company under the ministry of power, said it would offer for sale a further 412,273,220 equity shares of Rs10 each for cash at prices determined through the alternate book building route.

Of the total issue, 204,000,000 equity shares will be allotted to QIBs, which include scheduled commercial banks, mutual funds registered with SEBI, multilateral and bilateral development financial institutions, Foreign Venture Capital Investors registered with SEBI, venture capital funds registered with SEBI, state industrial development corporations, insurance companies registered with the IRDA, provident funds and pension funds with a minimum corpus of Rs25 crore, the National Investment Fund of the GoI, and insurance funds set up and managed by the Army, Navy or Air Force of the Union of India.

NTPC said the offer is being made through the book building route wherein up to 50 per cent of the net offer will be available for allocation on a price priority basis to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs). Five per cent of the QIB portion will be available for allocation on a price priority basis to mutual funds and the remainder will be allocated on a price priority basis to QIBs and mutual funds, subject to valid bids being received from them above the floor price, it added.