The Centre's offer for sale (OFS) in Coal India Limited has generated exceptional institutional demand, prompting the government to exercise its oversubscription option. Institutional investors placed bids worth approximately ₹19,000 crore on the first day, with non-retail investors subscribing to more than 45.15 crore shares or over 8 times the reserved portion at an indicative price of ₹436.69 per share. This strong institutional response has enabled the government to expand the issue size from the original 1% stake to 2% of Coal India's total paid-up equity capital, totaling 12.32 crore shares. The government will now sell up to 12.32 crore shares, representing 2% of Coal India's total paid-up equity share capital, according to an exchange filing. As per the Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), the non-retail portion received bids that were 8.14 times more than the total number of shares on offer, demonstrating unprecedented investor interest.
The Centre will sell up to 2% stake in Coal India Limited (CIL) through an offer for sale (OFS) from May 27 to May 29. According to reports from Zee News, the floor price has been set at ₹412 per equity share, which represents a 10% discount on Tuesday's closing price of ₹458.25 on the BSE. The government has proposed to sell 6.16 crore equity shares, constituting 1% of Coal India's total paid-up equity capital, as the base offer size. Additionally, the government retains an oversubscription option to sell an additional 6.16 crore shares, taking the total potential size of the offer to 12.32 crore shares, which works out to 2% of the total equity. The clearing price for the non-retail portion has been fixed as ₹447.10 per share, with the government deciding to use the green shoe option to sell an additional 1% equity in the country's largest miner.
The non-retail portion of the OFS demonstrated exceptional demand with bids received for 45.17 crore shares against the total non-retail offer size of 11.09 crore shares, resulting in a subscription of 407.17%. According to Business Standard, bids backed by 100% margin accounted for 14.30 crore shares, while bids without upfront margin stood at 30.87 crore shares. The indicative price discovered during the non-retail bidding process was ₹448.41 per share, while the clearing price was fixed at ₹447.10 per share. On the second day, which was open to retail investors and non-retail investors carrying forward their bids, the retail portion attracted bids for 1.61 crore shares against the total retail offer size of 1.23 crore shares, translating into a subscription of 130.29%. The non-retail carry-forward portion received bids for 24.82 lakh shares, representing 2.01% of the total OFS size of 12.32 crore shares, with overall bids for 1.85 crore shares received on the second day, amounting to 15.04% of the total OFS size.
According to Zee News, up to 25,000 equity shares may be offered to eligible employees of Coal India, subject to approval from the competent authority. Eligible employees can bid for shares worth up to ₹5 lakh. The company's board declared a final dividend of ₹5.25 per share for 2025-26. Coal India had announced a net profit of ₹10,908 crore for the January-March quarter of 2025-26, which represented a 12% increase over the same quarter of the previous financial year. The company's revenue from operations rose by 6% to ₹46,490 crore during the quarter, supported by improved realisations and higher other income. For the quarter ended March 2026, Coal India reported a 12.9% increase in consolidated net profit to ₹10,839.18 crore, while revenue from operations rose 5.75% to ₹46,490.03 crore compared with the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
The successful completion of the OFS is expected to reduce the Government of India's stake in Coal India from 63.13% as of March 2026. Coal India is India's largest coal producer and a Maharatna public sector undertaking, primarily engaging in coal mining and production and supplying coal to power, steel, cement, fertilizer and other industrial sectors. The government currently remains the promoter of Coal India and the stake sale is part of its broader disinvestment and market monetisation programme. Coal India is the second OFS of a public sector company in the current fiscal year, following last week's sale of 8.08% stake in Central Bank of India via OFS and raising ₹2,266 crore. The FY27 Budget has estimated a mop-up of ₹80,000 crore through disinvestment and asset monetisation, more than double the ₹33,837 crore given in the Revised Estimates for FY26. Currently, shares of Coal India were down 0.35% at ₹470.85 on the BSE following the completion of the OFS.
