The Government of India's offer for sale (OFS) of Cochin Shipyard Ltd concluded on July 8, 2026, with the total offer size reaching 1.33 crore equity shares, representing 5.04% of the company's paid-up equity share capital. Following strong demand from institutional investors, the government exercised the entire green-shoe option, taking the total offer size from the initial 2.52% base offer of 66.29 lakh shares to the full 5.04% stake. As per Business Standard, bids were received for 2.10 crore shares against the total non-retail offer size of 1.19 crore shares on the first day, resulting in a subscription of 176.38%. The floor price of ₹1,400 per share had been set at a 7% discount to the previous day's closing price of ₹1,504.75, with the OFS launched with a base offer size of 2.52% of the company's paid-up equity capital. The sale involves more than 1.32 crore shares, with the government holding a 67.91% stake as of March 2026 quarter, while retail investors owned 19.66% and high-net-worth individuals held 0.73%.
Cochin Shipyard's OFS opens for retail investors today, July 8, 2026, following the strong response from non-retail investors who subscribed 3.52 times on the first day of bidding. As per CNBC TV18, retail investors can place bids via the OFS section on their trading platform or broker's app, with the indicative price for retail bids set at ₹1,415 per share against the set floor price of ₹1,400 per share. The retail portion attracted bids for 1.18 lakh shares against the total retail offer size of 13.26 lakh shares, translating into a subscription of 8.93% on the second day. Eligible employees were permitted to bid for shares worth up to ₹5 lakh, with preferential allocation for applications up to ₹2 lakh. The 5.04% stake sale at the floor price is expected to fetch around ₹1,800 crore for the Centre. Investors should review issue details and hold sufficient funds in their trading account as the amount would be blocked until allotment, with successful applicants seeing shares reflect in demat accounts on settlement date.
Cochin Shipyard shares fell over 3% to ₹1,404.30 as the Centre's OFS concludes, following strong demand in the non-retail portion on Tuesday. The stock opened at ₹1,419, touched an intraday high of ₹1,428.90, and slipped to a low of ₹1,401.50, hovering just above the OFS floor price. The stock has declined 30.50% in the last 12 months and 13.25% year-to-date, with total traded volume standing at 1.42 times its 30-day average during Wednesday's session. The relative strength index was at 51.85, indicating the stock remains in overbought territory despite the decline. The heavy selling pressure was evident with sell orders outpacing buy orders at 59.29% versus 40.71% on the buy side, with the stock's performance coming against a Nifty 50 index that traded 0.60% lower. As per Essential Business Intelligence, the stock fell as much as 3.06% to ₹1,401.50 intraday low at around 10:00 am on Wednesday.
Cochin Shipyard reported a 3.72% decline in consolidated net profit to ₹276.48 crore on a 15.55% fall in revenue from operations to ₹1,484.27 crore in Q4 FY26 over Q4 FY25, as per Business Standard. The company is a leading player in the construction of all kinds of vessels and the repair and refit of all types of vessels, including periodic upgrades and life extensions of ships. For FY26, revenue rose to ₹5,022 crore from ₹4,820 crore, but profit fell to ₹717 crore from ₹827 crore. Market experts present mixed views on the OFS participation for retail investors. Harshal Dasani from INVasset PMS believes the discount looks attractive but questions whether earnings can justify the valuation after the PSU-defence rerating of 2023-24. However, Mahesh M Ojha from Kantilal Chhaganlal Securities said retail investors can consider subscribing as the offer price appears attractive, highlighting the discount provides a reasonable entry point into a fundamentally strong public sector company with healthy order book and long-term growth prospects.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, acting on behalf of the President of India, announced the OFS with a base offer size of 2.52% of the company's paid-up equity capital, or 66.29 lakh shares, with an equal oversubscription option taking the total potential dilution to 5.04%. According to DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla, the proposed stake sale is set at a floor price of ₹1,400 per share, with bidding opening for non-retail investors on July 7, 2026, and for retail investors and employees on July 8, 2026. The green-shoe option allows the government flexibility to sell a higher stake if demand is strong, potentially increasing the total stake sale to 5.04%. Of the base offer, 59.67 lakh shares have been reserved for non-retail investors and 6.63 lakh shares for retail investors. As of 10:06 am on Wednesday, the non-retail portion had received bids for 95,750 shares, translating into a subscription of 1.60%, with bids for 31,350 shares under the 100% margin category and 64,400 shares under the 0% margin category. The stake sale is part of the government's FY27 disinvestment plan, with Cochin Shipyard becoming the seventh company to join this list. Cochin Shipyard announced that the President of India acting through the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India (Promoter) has sold 1,20,49,170 equity shares of Cochin Shipyard aggregating to ₹1,713.28 crore on July 7 and 8, 2026 through the stock exchange mechanism.
The divestment comes as the government continues to roll out programmes to expand India's maritime ecosystem, a sector through which nearly 95% of the country's trade by volume and about 70% by value is transported. To support long-term growth, the government has created the Maritime Development Fund (MDF) with a corpus of ₹25,000 crore, as reported by The Times of India. The proposed transaction is part of the government's ongoing disinvestment programme aimed at raising resources through OFSs in public sector undertakings (PSUs). According to ET Now, the Indian government has launched OFS in seven PSUs during FY27, with Cochin Shipyard becoming the seventh company to join this list. However, the stake sales have received a modest response across all transactions, with the government divesting a maximum of 8% in any single company. The government's disinvestment programme for FY27 has already mobilised ₹24,928.09 crore, including ₹18,561.16 crore through disinvestment and ₹6,366.93 crore through asset monetisation, achieving about 31.2% of the full-year target.
