The Coal India Ltd (CIL) board plans to meet on 5th August to discuss the red herring prospectus draft, which is expected to be submitted by the first week of this month to the Securities and Exchange Board of India after being prepared.

Rs. 6,330-crore worth CIL's equity is under the Government which approved a proposal for the divestment of 10% with a 1% share CIL's employees.

Though this was done previous month, more advance action taken by the company has given them an edge in achieving its self-set target of hitting the market by October. This target will face some delay due to the government's delay in approving.

However, this delay has proved beneficial for the issue which was looking to accumulate Rs. 15,000 crore.

This issue has many advantages and will bring up private equity funds, pension funds and foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

CIL wants to ensure that there is retail participation and is depending on its huge employee-base. The company has already started involving its employees for the stock market operations. The expectation is that if even 50% of the employees invest in the initial public offering (IPO), there will be two-lakh small investors for retail participation.