Shipping Corp of India share sale raises $259 million

State-run Shipping Corp of India has raised $259 million through a share sale after the issue was priced at the top end of the range, shipping minister GK Vasan said on Monday.

The share sale has been priced at 140 rupees a share, the top end of the indicative price range of 135 rupees to 140 rupees apiece, Vasan said.     

The government sold 10% of its stake in the shipping services firm in the offering, which was covered nearly five times. The company issued another 10 percent of fresh equity.

The government will get 5.82 billion rupees of the total 11.65 billion rupees raised by selling a part of its stake in Shipping Corp, Vasan said.  Shipping Corp's share sale is the most recent in a series of such offerings by state-run companies.                                            Ahead of the announcement, shares in Shipping Corp ended up 0.5 percent at 144.45 rupees in the main Mumbai market that rose 0.1%. 

Last week, state-run Manganese Ore priced its IPO at 375 rupees a share, the top end of the range, after its offering was covered 56 times, signalling continued robust demand for state-run issues. Coal India's record $3.4 billion initial public offering in October was about 15 times subscribed, while Power Grid Corp $1.7 billion share sale at the top of its indicated range after the offer was nearly 15 times covered.                          

The government plans to raise $8.6 billion through stake sales in the fiscal year that ends in March 2011.                                            Shipping Corp plans to use the proceeds from the share sale to fund acquisition of nine vessels, of which it will place orders for two very large crude carriers and three containers soon, its Chairman Sabyasachi Hajara said last month.  

Indian investment banks SBI Capital, ICICI Securities and IDFC Capital are the lead managers for the Shipping Corp offer.