Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Apr 04, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Apr 04, 2002 |
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Corporate
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Mergers & Acquisitions BHEL may keep PSU status after 16 pc stake sale
Ashok Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 3 THE Ministry of Heavy Industry is in favour of retaining the public sector status for Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), at least for the time being, even while efforts are on to identify joint venture partners for all the other units under the Ministry. Although the PSU status is to be retained for BHEL, the Ministry is anticipating a lowering in Government equity in the power equipment major from the present 67 per cent to 51 per cent by offloading a 16 per cent stake in the open market. The offloading may be partially in the domestic market and partly in the international market on which a final decision is to be taken by the Disinvestment Commission, the Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Mr Ravinder Gupta, told Business Line. Though BHEL, like all other PSUs under the Ministry, is non-strategic, the only reason for retaining the PSU status for BHEL is the crucial role that the company is playing in the power sector, Mr Gupta said. According to indications available till now, it may be possible to find a joint venture partner for Richardson Cruddas and the second unit of Tyre Corporation. However, a similar exercise for Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Ltd (BOGL) seems to be difficult, Mr Gupta said. The Heavy Industries Secretary said that the ongoing efforts for identifying joint venture partners are expected to start taking shape within the next few months and going by the present state of affairs, one may be optimistic about significant progresses in the coming months. "Most of our efforts are expected to mature during the current financial year," Mr Gupta said.
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