NEW DELHI: The government has appointed three independent directors on the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), paving the way for sale of shares in the state-owned firm. "The approval of the Competent Authority for appointment of former RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat, former Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan and Deepak Nayyar, ex-vice chancellor of the Delhi University as independent or non-executive directors on the ONGC Board has been received," an oil ministry official said. With this, ONGC now meets market regulator SEBI's listing requirement of having equal number of executive and non- executive directors, paving the way for the follow-on public offer (FPO). "The timing of the public offer will however be decided by the Department of Disinvestment (DoD)," he said. The public offer in which the government plans to sell 5 per cent (427.77 million shares) was scheduled to open on July 5 and close on July 8. "To keep those timelines, three independent directors needed to fulfill Sebi's listing requirement should have been appointed by June 14,"he said, adding the delay in appointment meant that the FPO will be pushed back by at least one week. After the appointments are made, ONGC will need 3 full working days to prepare papers for filling with the market regulator. As per the July 5 timeline, ONGC was supposed to file red herring prospectus (RHP) for the FPO by June 17 and roadshows to promote it were to start soon after that.
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