South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, has submitted its draft offer document to the Securities and Exchange Board of India for an initial public offering. The document is dated 1 November 2026, according to Mint.
What happened
This draft, formally called a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP), is the preliminary filing a company makes with the regulator, SEBI, before it can launch an initial public offering (IPO). It carries business and financial details but not the final price or dates.
The issue will be entirely an offer for sale (OFS), in which an existing shareholder sells its shares. Coal India plans to sell up to 66.81 crore equity shares of face value ₹2 each. There is no fresh issue of shares.
Because of this, SECL will not receive any money from the offering. The proceeds go to Coal India, the selling shareholder, which will reduce its stake in the subsidiary.
Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the IPO could raise as much as $800 million. The filing itself does not state a size or price.
Issue structure
- The IPO will run through the book-building process, where investors bid within a price range.
- Not more than 50% of the net offer is reserved for qualified institutional buyers.
- Not less than 15% is for non-institutional investors and not less than 35% for retail individual investors.
- The issue will be managed by a team of four merchant banks: the investment-banking arms of SBI, ICICI and IDBI, along with Motilal Oswal. KFin Technologies has been appointed registrar, which handles application and allotment records.
- The shares are proposed to be listed on the BSE and NSE.
What it means for you
Nothing opens for bidding yet. SEBI must review the draft, and dates and the price band will be announced later. If you follow IPOs, the draft is the document to read for risks and financials once it is public.
The numbers in the filing show what the business looks like. SECL’s revenue from operations was ₹32,956.5 crore in FY26 against ₹29,998.3 crore in FY25. Net profit rose to ₹4,754.5 crore from ₹4,540.4 crore.
In the six months ended 30 September 2026, revenue was ₹16,593.7 crore against ₹15,090.2 crore a year earlier. Net profit rose to ₹2,174.3 crore from ₹1,140.9 crore.
Background
Incorporated in 1985 and based in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, SECL is Coal India’s second-largest coal-producing subsidiary. Citing a Crisil report, the filing says it produced 176.29 million tonnes of coal in FY26, up 5.25% from 167.49 million tonnes, which is 16.94% of India’s total output and 22.95% of Coal India’s.
As of 30 September 2026 it operated 53 producing mines, 19 opencast and 34 underground. Its audited coal reserves were 4.61 billion tonnes on 1 April 2026, enough for about 26 years at FY26 production levels.
The filing follows another Coal India unit. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd filed draft papers in September for an IPO in which Coal India plans to sell a 10% stake, according to Mint. Mint also reported that Bharat Coking Coal Ltd launched its public offering earlier this year.
