Indian Rail Finance Corporation Ltd (IRFC) saw its shares plunging 5 per cent in Wednesday's trade as the two-day offer for sale (OFS) by the government opened for non-retail investors. The stock fell as the floor price was set at Rs 91 per share, which was at a 7.49 per cent discount to Tuesday's closing price of Rs 98.37 apiece. IRFC had 50.66 lakh retail investors as of March 31.

The railway PSU fell 5.23 per cent to hit a low of Rs 93.52 on BSE, taking its year-to-date fall to 25.46 per cent.

The OFS received non-retail bids for 2,700 shares so far against the base quota size of 11,76,16,554 shares at an indicative price of Rs 91 per share.

The government s looking to offload up to 26,13,70,120 IRFC shares, representing up to 2 per cent stake. This would be the sixth PSU where the government has trimmed exposure in FY27 so far. Data showed the government owned 86.36 per cent stake in IRFC. It is required to pare its stake to 75 per cent to meet the minimum public shareholding norms.

The government earlier cuts stakes in General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), NLC India Ltd, NHPC Ltd, Coal India Ltd and Central Bank of India and raised Rs 16,479.89 crore. 
 
In the case of IRFC, the government has proposed to sell up to 13,06,85,060 shares of the railway lender, representing 1 per cent of the total paid up equity share capital as base offer size. In case of oversubscription, IRFC has kept option to offload another 1 per cent stake. A total of 10 per cent of the offer is reserved for allocation to retail investors.

Additionally, up to 25,000 shares of the company, equivalent to 0.0002 per cent of the total issued and paid up equity share capital, may be offered to eligible employees of IRFC, in accordance with the terms and conditions provided in the OFS Guidelines.

Only non-retail investors are allowed to place their bids on today. While placing their bids, these investors may indicate their willingness to carry forward their un-allotted bids to T+1 day for allocation to them in the unsubscribed portion of retail category. 

"The offer shall take place during trading hours on a separate window of the Stock Exchanges on T day, i.e., June 24, 2026 commencing at 9:15 a.m. and shall close at 3:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time on the same date," IRFC said.

IRFC said only retail investors and employees will be allowed to place their bids on T+1 day, i.e., June 25, 2026. Further, those non-retail investors who have placed their bids on T day and have chosen to carry forward their unallotted bids to T+1 day, will be allowed to revise their bids on T+1 day as per the OFS.

"The allocation shall be at or above the floor price on a price priority basis at multiple clearing prices, in accordance with the OFS Guidelines. except in case of Retail Investors and Employees, who shall have an option to bid at the Cut - Off Price and for whom the final allocation price may be below the floor price on account of retail discount," IRFC said.