Indian government raises $279 million from steel company sell-down

The Indian government did manage to raise the minimum Rs15.14 billion $279 million targeted from its auction-style sell-down in Steel Authority of India known as Sail last Friday, but it wasn’t particularly smooth sailing.

The deal was reduced in size at the last minute from 10.8% of the outstanding share capital to just 5.8% and, according to stock exchange data, it was still only 100.4% covered.

In fact, it appears that at least two-thirds of the deal was taken up by Life Insurance Corporation of India LIC and other state-owned entities, as well as domestic mutual funds, suggesting a large degree of state support for the final...