NEW DELHI: The over Rs 900-crore Offer for Sale (OFS) of government shares in defence firm Bharat Dynamics got off to a smooth start with the portion reserved for institutional investors oversubscribed 1.40 times.

The government is selling over 2.74 crore shares of Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) at a floor price of Rs 330 apiece.

"Offer for Sale of 15 per cent Govt shares in BDL got good response on day one and was subscribed 1.40 times by non- retail investors . Govt has decided to exercise the green shoe option . Retail investors get chance to bid tomorrow with a discount of Rs 20 on the cut off price," Secretary DIPAM (Department of Investment and Public Asset Management) tweeted.

This is the second OFS launched by the government in the current fiscal.

The government sold about 15 per cent stake in defence manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) to raise around Rs 5,000 crore last month. However, it has not been able to do any strategic stake sale so far.

The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 2.10 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

Of this, Rs 1.20 lakh crore is to come from disinvestment of public sector undertakings and another Rs 90,000 crore from stake sale in financial institutions.