The initial public offer for divestment of government's 25 per cent equity in the car joint venture with Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation would remain open for offers till June 19 as scheduled, sources close to the divestment process told PTI.

Maximum bids for 5.83 crore (58.3 million) shares came at Rs 120 per share compared to the floor price of Rs 115, according to the data available on Bombay Stock Exchange at 1500 IST.

The second highest quantity of bids - 1.05 crore (10.5 million) shares were at Rs 122 per share.

Dubbing the response as 'overwhelming and unprecedented', they said the allocation of shares to qualified institutional buyers, high networth investors (those individual buyers who place orders in excess of 1000 shares) and retail investors would be decided later.

As of now the company would have to keep at least 25 per cent of shares for retail investors and a minimum of 15 per cent for high networth investors, sources said adding that qualified institutional buyers were subjected to a ceiling of 60 per cent equity put on the block.

They clarified that retail investors could be considered for larger quantum of equity in case there was demand keeping in view the objective of making MUL as broad based a company as possible.

The response to the offer with a floor price of Rs 115 a share has prompted the officials associated with the process to speculate that the oversubscription could be as high as ten times by the time the issue, being done through book building route, closes on June 19.

The SMC had agreed to underwrite the IPO at Rs 2300 a share of Rs 100 but the company had gone for a share split to break each share into 20 of Rs 5 each, which established a floor price of Rs 115 a share.

As a build up to the public offering, MUL has already conducted roadshows in Mumbai, Delhi, London, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco and the roadshow is now proceeding towards Singapore and Dubai.

Divestment Minister Arun Shourie on Wednesday had exuded confidence that public offer of Maruti would set the tone for divestment in other PSUs -- Nalco and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd through the IPO route.

"I hope it will be successful, and then the effect on Nalco and BPCL would be good. Even on primary market there will be a good effect. The primary market will be strengthened," Shourie had said.

Citing the basis for his enthusiasm about the response to Maruti IPO, Shourie had said the carmaker, was one of the rare case in a competitive segment capturing the majority market with more than 55 per cent share despite the presence of a dozen renowned auto companies around the world.