Investors subscribed to one-third of Coal India’s initial public offering of up to Rs154.75 billion $3.46 billion as the deal opened for subscription yesterday a strong sign in a market where institutional investors have to put down 10% of the order amount when they submit their orders and hence tend to wait until the final day to do so.
The demand suggests that the government learnt from its latest sell-down in March this year, when it reduced its stake in the country’s largest iron ore producer, NMDC, to 90% from just over 98%. That transaction attracted a lot of interest, but because the price was deemed to be...