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Informist, Thursday, Jul 25, 2024

 

--Fin min source: Govt puts strategic sale of CONCOR on backburner

--Fin min source: Railway min not in favour of CONCOR's strategic sale

--Fin min source: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam strategic sale off the table

 

By Shubham Rana and Krity Ambey

 

NEW DELHI – Strategic disinvestment in Container Corp of India Ltd has now been put on the backburner, a senior finance ministry official said. The government had earlier planned to sell 30.80% stake in the company. 

 

The railway ministry is not in favour of the strategic sale of CONCOR, the official told Informist. "We cannot go ahead unless the administrative ministry is on board." 

 

Container Corp is a government-owned logistics and transport company under the Ministry of Railways. The railways charges a licence fee from the company to run container terminals. 

 

In November 2019, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given an in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment in the company. In September 2022, the Cabinet cleared a policy on railway land, paving the way for strategic disinvestment in CONCOR. The government was expected to invite expression of interest from potential bidders for the sale of the public sector company in 2023.

 

"So far, the government has not invited the expression of interest from the prospective investors, and I don't see it coming either," the official said. The finance ministry had prepared a draft document to invite initial bids, but the railway ministry did not revert back with the final document, the official said.

 

At current prices, the strategic sale of 30.80% stake in CONCOR would have garnered the government 192.36 bln rupees. At 0925 IST, shares of the transport and container handling company were at 1,015.55 rupees on the National Stock Exchange, down 0.9%. 

 

Similarly, strategic disinvestment in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd is also not under consideration any more, the official said. In 2021, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved sale of the government's entire stake in the steel producer. Subsequently, the government appointed transaction and legal advisers and an asset valuer for the disinvestment process.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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