SAIL dithers over follow-on offer date, cancels road show

Steel Authority of India has called off the road shows for its follow-on public offer, as its board of directors which met on Monday failed to come to a decision on a date for launching the FPO.

Disinvestment secretary Sumit Bose confirmed that SAIL's first phase of road shows had been cancelled, but refused to give details. He, however, said that the follow-on offer of Oil and Natural Gas Commission was on track and would happen in July as planned.

While SAIL's board approved the red herring prospectus for the issue, it could not decide on a date, signalling that with the market fairly volatile, companies are hesitant to launch share sales.

SAIL chairman C S Verma, who had earlier indicated he wanted the offer to open in mid-June, said after the meeting, ''The board has approved the FPO. The timing of the FPO will be decided depending on the market conditions. It should be in June, but we are yet to take a call."

SAIL's public offer was first lined up last year but was delayed after a controversy arose over its bankers also handling issue of private sector rival Tata Steel. The government has since come up with new regulations that ban bankers managing public sector floats from simultaneously handling offers of private sector firms in the same sector.

SAIL expects to raise Rs7,000-8,000 crore from the public offering, which will be a combination of fresh shares and sale of government holding. SAIL will keep half of the money raised from the issue, while the rest will go to the government's divestment kitty.