Indian government to divest stake in missile producer BDL

The Indian government plans to divest a 15% stake in state-owned missile manufacturer Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), it was announced on 7 September.

The share sale, which is expected to generate funds of up to INR9.07 billion (USD123.5 million), follows the government’s divestment of a 14.8% stake in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in late August.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) BDL said that the government share offer could feature nearly 27.5 million shares and will proceed over two stages.

The Indian government has said it will divest an additional stake in Bharat Dynamics, a manufacturer of missile systems including the Akash surface-to-air system (pictured). (Indian PIB)

In the first, the government will sell on Indian stock exchanges 18.32 million BDL shares – or a 10% government stake – from 8 September. If this offer is oversubscribed, the government will divest an additional 5% stake, or 9.16 million shares, from 9 September.

The shares will be sold at INR330 each. On 8 September BDL’s shares were trading at about INR385 each. The government also sold off a 12.25% stake in BDL through an initial public offering (IPO) in March 2018. The listing raised INR9.6 billion.

In fiscal year 2019-20 BDL, which is based in Hyderabad, registered an annual turnover of INR30.95 billion and a net profit of INR5.35 billion. These represented year-on-year increases of 1% and 27% respectively. On announcing its results in July the company said that its defence business activities had not been impacted by Covid-19.