The Indian government has raised close to ₹3,000 crore through the sale of a 6 per cent stake in public sector mining major Hindustan Copper Ltd, with the two-day Offer for Sale (OFS) closing successfully on Wednesday, 26 August. The issue drew strong demand from both institutional and retail investors, with the government exercising its entire greenshoe option.

OFS Oversubscribed on Both Days

Arunish Chawla, Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), confirmed the strong market response in a post on X. 'The issue was oversubscribed on both days, and the Government decided to exercise its entire greenshoe option. We thank all investors for their participation and reposing their faith in us,' he said.

The non-retail portion, which opened on Tuesday, was subscribed more than three times, prompting the government to invoke the full greenshoe option. The retail tranche opened on Wednesday, completing the two-day process.

Structure and Pricing of the Offer

The government offered to sell a little over 5.8 crore shares, representing up to 6 per cent of Hindustan Copper — including a 3 per cent greenshoe option. The floor price was set at ₹514 per share, a 10 per cent discount to the stock's closing price of ₹574 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday.

The base offer comprised 29,01,073 shares, with an equal oversubscription option of 29,01,073 shares. Against 58,02,146 shares on offer, provisional bids totalling 41,566,840 were received by the close of the final day, according to figures compiled by the stock exchanges. As much as 10 per cent of the shares on offer were reserved for retail investors, with an additional 25,000 shares set aside for eligible employees.

Hindustan Copper's Financial Performance

Investor appetite was likely underpinned by the company's robust recent financials. For financial year 2025–26, Hindustan Copper reported revenue from operations surging 48.6 per cent year-on-year to ₹3,077.92 crore, while net profit nearly doubled — jumping 97.5 per cent to ₹918.54 crore.

The momentum carried into the first quarter of financial year 2026–27 (April–June), with the company posting a net profit of ₹353 crore on revenue of ₹936.5 crore — signalling continued operational strength heading into the new fiscal year.

Disinvestment Context and What Comes Next

The Hindustan Copper OFS is part of the Centre's broader disinvestment programme, which has leaned increasingly on OFS transactions as a capital-light route to monetise public sector holdings without full privatisation. This comes amid a wider push by DIPAM to meet its annual asset monetisation targets through minority stake sales in listed state-owned enterprises.

With the OFS now closed, proceeds will flow to the government exchequer. The strong subscription signals sustained institutional confidence in India's metals and mining sector, particularly as global copper demand linked to the energy transition remains elevated. How the government deploys these proceeds — and whether further disinvestment tranches follow — will be closely watched by markets.