BHEL stake sale opens on Wednesday, govt may offload up to 5%

The government’s planned divestment in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) is set to kick off on Wednesday and the Centre plans to divest 3% stake, with a greenshoe option to sell and an additional 2%.

The offer for sale (OFS) for non-retail investors will open on Wednesday, while retail investors can place their bids on Thursday, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) said in a statement on social media platform X.

The greenshoe involves an option to sell an additional 6.96 crore shares, equivalent to 2% of the company's equity capital, which would take the total potential divestment to 17.41 crore shares, or 5% of the company’s equity capital, if fully exercised.

The government currently owns 63.17% of the Maharatna company, which has a market capitalisation of ₹96,122.36 crore.

BHEL, under the ministry of heavy industries, plays a key role in India’s power and infrastructure sectors. It manufactures critical and super-critical thermal power equipment.

Part of divestment

The OFS is part of the government’s disinvestment plan for the current fiscal 2025-26. According to data available on the official site of Dipam the government has so far this fiscal raised ₹8,768.02 crore as disinvestment receipts. It has also raised ₹18,837.42 crore from monetization of public assets.

The stake sale would test the government’s plan for more such offers in the remaining period of the fiscal. The government has revised the disinvestment target for FY26 from the budgeted ₹47,000 crore to ₹33,837 crore. It will be driven by minority stake sales in central public sector enterprises, including insurance and defence companies, alongside asset monetization.

The final amount to be raised through the BHEL OFS will depend on investor response and the exercise of the greenshoe option. The shares of BHEL closed 0.53% higher at ₹276.05 a share at the close of market hours on Tuesday on BSE Ltd.

So far this fiscal, the government has sold stakes in Bank of Maharashtra ( ₹2,624.24 crore); Indian Overseas Bank ( ₹1,419.36 crore), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd ( ₹3,673.42 crore); and remittances from the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India ( ₹1,051 crore).

For FY27, the government has set a higher disinvestment target of ₹80,000 crore from the sale of shares in central public sector enterprises and asset monetization.