The government will begin today 5% stake sale in state-owned aerospace and defence company Bharat Electronics Ltd to raise about Rs 1,600 crore.

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The sale of 1.11 crore shares will be at a minimum price of Rs 1,498 apiece, 4% discount to yesterday's closing price of BEL on BSE.

The share sale will be through an offer for sale (OFS) spread over two days - first day for institutional investors and the second day, on Thursday, for retail investors, a top official said. The government currently holds 74.41% stake in BEL, which has a market cap of Rs 34,843.5 crore.

This will be the second government OFS in 2017, the last being the sale of its 10% in Manganese Ore (India) Ltd (MOIL) raising Rs 480 crore.

The government had sold 10% in MOIL in January for Rs 480 crore, 15% in NBCC to mobilise Rs 2,200 crore in October, 2016, 7% in Hindustan Copper to raise Rs 400 crore in September and 11.36% in NHPC to garner Rs 2,716 crore in April.

Over Rs 31,000 crore have been raised through minority share sale by way of OFS, share buyback and CPSE ETF so far in the current fiscal.

Last month, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) launched the second tranche of CPSE Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which was over-subscribed 2 times. The sale fetched Rs 6,000 crore to the exchequer.