The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), India's largest state-owned steel-making company, is considering a 5% follow-on public offer (FPO) in the fiscal year 2027 to raise capital for its capital expenditure (capex) plans, CNBC-TV18 reported.

A follow-on public offer allows an already publicly listed company to issue additional shares to investors. Unlike an Offer for Sale (OFS), in which proceeds typically go to the government exchequer as the promoter divests its stake, an FPO enables the company itself to retain the funds raised. For SAIL, this means the capital generated from the offering could be deployed directly toward the company's own expansion and modernization initiatives. SAIL previously conducted a major FPO in 2011, through which the government and the company together raised approximately Rs 4,800 crore.

SAIL, headquartered in New Delhi, is a Maharatna central public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Steel, Government of India. The company operates five integrated steel plants—Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur, and Burnpur—as well as three special steel plants, and is one of the country's largest producers of steel and steel products. SAIL's current crude steel production capacity stands at approximately 20 million tonnes per annum, and the company has outlined long-term modernization plans to expand this capacity further in line with India's National Steel Policy 2017, which envisions a total domestic steel-making capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2030–31.

The Government of India currently holds a majority stake in SAIL, making it a key entity in the public sector disinvestment landscape. The proposed FPO would represent a fresh issuance of shares rather than a stake sale by the government, distinguishing it from the disinvestment-driven OFS routes the government has used for other central public sector enterprises in recent years.

The report was published by CNBC-TV18 and is available at CNBC-TV18 Markets.