Engineers India Sale to Raise 9.6 Billion Rupees for Government, Bose Says

India’s government will raise about 9.6 billion rupees ($208 million) from a sale of shares in Engineers India Ltd., Disinvestment Secretary Sumit Bose said in New Delhi today.

A panel of government ministers set the price of Engineers India shares at 290 rupees apiece, Bose said. The share sale price is at a 12 percent discount to the stock’s closing price today.

India is tapping investor appetite for the South Asian nation’s equities after companies raised more than 654 billion rupees from shares sales this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, putting the market on course to exceed 2008’s record 782 billion rupees. The government plans to raise 400 billion rupees from share sales in the year ending March 31.

Shares of New Delhi-based Engineers India rose 1.5 percent to 328.5 rupees at close of trade in Mumbai today. The announcement was made after market close.

India announced the sale of about 33.7 million shares, or a 10 percent stake, in the state-owned provider of engineering services to oil, gas and petrochemical companies in July.

ICICI Securities Ltd., HSBC Securities & Capital Markets (India) Pvt., IDFC Capital Ltd. and SBI Capital Markets Ltd. are managing the sale.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tushar Dhara in New Delhi at tdhara1@bloomberg.net