Government to sell up to 2% stake in IRFC through offer for sale this week | Today’s news

The government on Tuesday announced an offer for sale (OFS) in state-owned Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), which is seeking to sell up to 2% of its equity stake and a green shoe option.

The OFS will open to non-retail investors on Wednesday and retail investors will be able to participate on Thursday, said Arunish Chawla, secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam), in a post on X. Chawla said the government is proposing to sell a 1% stake in the company, with an additional 1% stake available through a strong investor option.

However, Dipam has not yet disclosed key details such as the minimum price and offer size for OFS. In recent share sales, including those Coal India, NHPC, NLC India, Central Bank of India and GIC Re, Dipam included these details while announcing the offer.

IRFC, the dedicated finance arm of Indian Railways, raises resources from domestic and international markets for funding acquisition of rolling stock and other railway infrastructure assets.

The government currently owns 84.65% of the company, or 11.06 billion shares. At Tuesday’s closing price ₹98.69 per share, its stake is valued at around ₹1.09 trillion while the total market capitalization of IRFC is approx ₹1.29 trillion. If the entire 2% stake is sold, the government’s stake in the company will drop to 82.65%.

Mint announced on May 13 that the ministry of railways planned to sell 2-3% minority stake in its listed companies in FY27 through the OFS route as part of the government’s disinvestment program under which it intends to acquire ₹80,000 crore from disinvestments and asset monetization.

So far, the government has increased ₹16,479.89 crore by selling stakes in five public sector companies. These include: