The government agency responsible for implementing a disinvestment plan for the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has invited merchant bankers to help manage the stake sale in the firm.

The Department of Disinvestment has invited proposals from merchant bankers to assist it in the initial public offering (IPO) involving the sale of a 10 per cent government stake. The government has decided to offload a ten percent stake in HAL out of the 100 per cent it holds.

According to a recent notification, the government would appoint two domestic and two international Category-1 bankers to become the lead managers for the IPO. The Department of Disinvestment revised the presentations by merchant bankers date to November 14 and 15 from earlier proposal of November 10 and 11.

According to sources, the government is also planning to issue bonus shares before disinvestment to attract more investors to the firm's IPO. The Defence Ministry had approved the disinvestment of 10 per cent of its stake in eh next five years, last month. The firm will be the third public-sector in the defence field to be disinvested after Bharat Electronics Ltd and BEML.

HAL has a turnover of over Rs. 13,000 crore and is India's only aerospace company. It is involved in several multi-million rupees military aerospace projects.