The Centre has collected more than Rs 17,000 crore from the CPSE ETF follow-on offer, the biggest fund-raising via an exchange-traded fund locally.

The follow-on fund offer, which closed on Friday, attracted bids worth around Rs 27,300 crore from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), domestic institutions and retail investors.

The CPSE ETF had a base issue size of Rs 8,000 crore with a greenshoe option to retain an additional subscription of Rs 6,000 crore. The total issue size was Rs 14,000 crore. However, a government official told PTI that it will retain a little over Rs 17,000 crore from the offer.

This amount of Rs 17,000 crore is more than that raised by the Centre via divestment so far in the current financial year.

The government has mobilised over Rs 15,000 crore by divesting part of its shareholding in various PSU entities. This includes about Rs 5,300 crore from the Coal India share sale and Rs 1,700 crore from IPOs of four PSUs — RITES, Ircon, Midhani and Garden Reach Shipbuilders.

The budgeted target from PSU divestment is Rs 80,000 crore for the current financial year.

The Centre had hit the markets with the fourth tranche of CPSE ETF on November 27. Anchor investors had put in bids worth Rs 13,300 crore, which was almost six times the shares reserved for them, on the first day of the issue.

Telegraph infographic

Of the bids worth Rs 27,300 crore, over Rs 17,000 crore came in from FPIs. Retail investors put in bids worth over Rs 1,200 crore through 93,000 applications.

“The Rs 17,000 crore raised from disinvestment is also the largest ever equity fund offering through ETF in India,” Reliance Mutual Fund CEO Sundeep Sikka said in a statement.

The CPSE ETF comprises shares of 11 state-run companies, including ONGC, Coal India, IOC, Oil India, PFC, REC, and Bharat Electronics. NTPC, SJVN, NLC and NBCC are the new entrants.

The CPSE ETF was set up in 2014, and the government has so far sold stake in the basket in three tranches, raising Rs 11,500 crore — Rs 3,000 crore from the first tranche in March 2014, Rs 6,000 crore in January 2017 and Rs 2,500 crore from the third in March 2017.