FPO PRICING - NMDC may offer discount to investors - livemint.com

Wiser with the experience of the past two public issues of state-owned firms, the government is likely to be extra conservative in pricing the fol- low-on public offer (FPO) of NMDC Ltd for retail investors. Shares of NMDC, the coun- try's largest producer of iron ore, closed at Rs435.15 apiece on the Bombay Stock Ex- change (BSE) on Thursday, but the market price will not be a benchmark for the FPO price.
The market price is considered high by valuation parameters such as price-earnings (P-E), price-to-book and peer value comparison."Considering the low free- float of NMDC shares, we are treating the issue more like an IPO (initial public offering) than a conventional FPO," dis- investment secretary Sumit Bose said at the start of the NMDC roadshow in Mumbai.
Bose termed the issue as a "re-IPO", indicating the mar- ket price may not be a key component in the pricing to be announced on 8 March, with the issue opening on 10 March.
NMDC has a free-float of only 1.62%, or 64 million shares, as the government owns 98.38% of the company.
It will divest an 8.38% stake through the issue of nearly 330 million shares.
Life Insurance Corp. of India is the second largest share- holder with a 0.76% stake. Only 0.23%, or 9.1 million shares, are held by companies and in- dividuals.
Although retail investors who subscribe to the NMDC offering have been assured a discount of at least 5% to the issue price, there are expecta- tions the price band will be much lower.
Given the low liquidity of the stock, the current market price of NMDC shares may not be of much relevance to the price band, Bose said.
"(The) government heard it (concerns over low free-float and overvaluation) loud and clear," said A. Rajagopal, man- aging director (investment banking) at UBS Securities Pvt.
Ltd. "This is not a difficult business to value. There are established benchmarks."
According to Bloomberg data, NMDC's earnings per share is Rs8.62. At current market price, its P-E multiple stands at over 50 times, which analysts say is "exorbitant". From Rs140.30 on 9 March last year, NMDC shares rose to Rs571.80 on 19 January this year.
Bose said the government had decided to resort to the conventional book-building method for the NMDC FPO af- ter having tried the so-called French auction process in the first two issues this year.
The French auction allows retail investors to buy shares at the floor price while institu- tions are required to bid at any price above this. In book- building, investors have to bid within a 20% price band and the final price is determined after the close of bidding.
With every public issue, the government has been tweaking the norms. For the FPO of NTPC Ltd, the country's largest power generator, the govern- ment chose the French auction route, but failed to attract both retail and institutional inves- tors. It modified the French auction norms for the Rural Electrification Corp. (REC) is- sue, but that too failed to at- tract retail investors.
Historically, FPOs of state- owned firms attracted decent retail participation through the conventional book-building process. In 2004, the government offered 15-25% discounts to the market price to retail in- vestors, boosting their partici- pation.
Investors across the globe are keen to buy into NMDC, which produces the highest quality ore at the lowest cost, said Minakshi Ghose, joint secretary, disinvestment.
"We are conscious of the fact that retail investors need to be attracted," Ghose said. "We have increased the number of bidding centres and are hold- ing regular meetings with bankers to ensure the maxi- mum participation."
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has earmarked a divestment target of Rs25,958 crore in 2009-10. According to bsepsu.com, a website of BSE, the government has raised Rs12,739 crore in the current fiscal through share sales in Oil India Ltd, NHPC Ltd and NTPC. Last week, it sold REC shares worth Rs900 crore.
It needs to raise another Rs12,300 crore to meet the re- vised divestment target for 2009-10. This can be done if NMDC is priced at around Rs372 a share, or a 14.5% dis- count to the current market price. Recent FPOs of NTPC and REC were at discounts of 5% and 8%, respectively.
Atul Chaturvedi, steel secre- tary, said the NMDC FPO should not be seen as a finan- cial transaction alone.
"For many corporations, it's a relationship investment," he said. "For example, for a number of steel companies NMDC is the sole supplier of ore. If NMDC doesn't give them ore, they will have to shut shop. These entities are keen to get some shares in NMDC to help improve their business relations."