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CHENNAI, Sept. 19

THE Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has said that it does not propose or support strategic sale of Nalco as the first option.

"We prefer public offer of shares over strategic sale," its convenor, Mr S. Gurumurthy, has said in a statement seeking to clarify the SJM's views on the disinvestment of Nalco.

In a statement, Mr Gurumurthy said that the SJM advocated public offer of shares over strategic sale for all cases.

If, however, the public offer was not found desirable in any case, strategic sale might be resorted to, but only as a second option.

So the method of divestment need not be uniform in all cases, he said.

He said that where a potential bidder in a strategic sale was likely to become a monopoly, the bidder should be barred from the bid. In the context of Nalco, "the Birla group or any other group", which would turn a monopoly if it won the bid should be barred from the bid.

"It is not the view of the SJM that the Birla group alone should be barred as has been made out in the news items published. The criterion should be whether after winning the bid, the group concerned would attain monopoly status in the industry."

"In such a case, the bidder must be disqualified. In any event MNCs should not be allowed to acquire divested companies. This more accurately represents the views of SJM on divestment," Mr Gurumurthy said.

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