MUMBAI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- India's state-owned e-commerce company MSTC Ltd has fixed a price band of 1.73-1.83 U.S. dollars a share for its three-day initial public offer (IPO) that will be open for subscription on Wednesday, as per the Red Herring documents filed by the company Monday.

The company, earlier known as Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation, will offer Rs 5.50 per share discount to retail investors and employees.

The Indian government holds 89.85 percent stakes in the company and will off-load 17.67 million shares or the equivalent of 25.1 percent of the paid-up equity capital of the company.

The offer for sale will help the government raise 30.6-32.3 million U.S. dollars. The MSTC has a paid-up equity capital of 70.4 million equity shares and will not receive any proceeds from the issue.

Apart from e-commerce, the company also trades in bulk raw material and re-cycling business through its 50:50 joint venture with Mahindra Intertrade Ltd.

The MSTC emerged as a pioneer in the e-auction segment catering to the government sector, with an experience of over 190,000 auctions, serving over 110,000 users as of Dec. 31, 2018.

In the six-month period ending Sept. 30 last year, the company posted revenue of 213.4 million U.S. dollars and a net loss of 2.3 million U.S. dollars.