Friday, August 8, 2008

BSNL IPO hits roadblock!


The much awaited $10 billion BSNL IPO has hit a road block before even taking-off. Communications minister A Raja's offer to give all the 3 lakh employees 500 shares at Rs 10 each has been rejected by the Union. This would have fetched each employee a minimum of Rs 1.5-2 lakh at the time of BSNL’s listing on the bourses.

If the share were to list somewhere between Rs300-400, it would give BSNL valuation of $37-45 billion which is way lower than $100 billion what the company has been claiming since January.According to analysts, the $37-45 billion valuation is a fair one. BSNL has about 81 million subscribers, 10 million more than the country’s largest private operator, Bharti Airtel, which is valued just over $38 billion. However, a top BSNL official said that this was only the book value of the company and did not include its asset value.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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