Disinvestment: Govt to offload 25% stake in WAPCOS through IPO

• DIPAM has floated tenders for engaging a registrar and an advertising agency for WAPCOS IPO

• The government intends to disinvest upto 25% paid up equity share capital of WAPCOS out of its shareholding of 100%, through an Initial Public Offering, said the NIT

New Delhi: The government is looking to offload 25 percent stake in WAPCOS Limited through an initial public offering (IPO) and has floated tenders for engaging a registrar and an advertising agency for the disinvestment process, according to a notification released by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). "The Government intends to disinvest upto 25 percent paid up equity share capital of WAPCOS out of its shareholding of 100 percent, through an "Initial Public Offering" in the domestic market," said DIPAM in the notice inviting tender (NIT).

WAPCOS

WAPCOS Limited is a Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Jal Shakti Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga incorporated on June 26, 1969 under the Companies act. 1956; WAPCOS is a technology driven consultancy and EPC organisation with strong global presence in the field of Water, Power and Infrastructure sectors. WAPCOS has the requisite experience and expertise to undertake consultancy and EPC projects of any scale and complexity in the sectors of its operation. The company has manpower of more than 2,500. 

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The paid-up capital of the company is Rs 100 crore as on March 31, 2020. WAPCOS achieved its highest-ever Revenue from Operations (Projected Income) of Rs 1,550.24 crore in 2019-20 as against Rs 1,413.09 crore in 2018-19, which is an increase of 9.71 percent. The Profit before Tax during the year has been Rs 212.32 crore against Rs 203.06 crore last year, an increase of 4.56 percent.

The backdrop

The government had set a disinvestment target of Rs 2.1 lakh crore for FY2020-21. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it looks set to miss the target by a huge margin. In the Budget presented recently on February 1, the government has set the disinvestment target for FY2021-22 to Rs 1.75 lakh crore. It has also stated that it will pursue a policy of exiting management control of PSUs in non-strategic sectors and will retain bare minimum number of PSUs in strategic sectors.

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