Institutional buyers over-subscribe Central Bank of India OFS by 2 times; put in ₹2,380 cr bids

Institutional investors on Friday put in over Rs 2,380 crore worth bids in the Offer For Sale (OFS) of Central Bank of India shares, which got over-subscribed more than two times.

The government is selling up to 8 per cent stake in the Central Bank of India at a floor price of Rs 31 per share. If fully subscribed, the stake sale would fetch Rs 2,456 crore to the government.

Till the close of trading hours on Friday, institutional investors put in bids for over 76.86 crore shares, which is about 2.36 times of the 32.58 crore shares on offer.

At the indicated price of Rs 31.01 a share, non-retail investors put in over Rs 2,380 crore worth bids for Central Bank OFS.

The OFS offer includes a 4 per cent greenshoe option, taking the total stake that the government intends to offload to 8 per cent.

This is the first OFS by the government in the current fiscal.

Retail investors will be able to bid in the share sale offer on Monday.

The floor price of Rs 31 a share is 8.58 per cent lower than the stock's Thursday's closing price of Rs 33.91 on the BSE.

Shares of Central Bank of India slipped 7.90 per cent to close at Rs 31.23 on BSE on Friday.

The OFS will help the government inch towards meeting the Securities and Exchange Board of India's minimum public shareholding norm.

According to SEBI, all listed companies must maintain public shareholding of 25 per cent.

The government currently holds 89.27 per cent stake. If the government exercises the greenshoe option, its total stake in the state-owned bank will come down to 81.27 per cent.

In the 2025-26 fiscal, the government had raised the OFS of two PSU banks -- Bank of Maharashtra (Rs Rs 2,624 crore) and Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 1,419 crore).

In the current fiscal the government aims to mop up Rs 80,000 crore through PSU disinvestment and asset monetisation, up from Rs 33,837 crore pegged in the Revised Estimates for FY26.

Published on May 22, 2026