CIL to divest 25% stake in BCCL, public offer on cards

NEW DELHI: State-owned Coal India Ltd plans to divest 25% stake in its unlisted arm Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and opt for the subsequent listing of the subsidiary on stock exchanges after obtaining further clearances, it said on Thursday.

A meeting of the board of directors to this effect was held on March 10, 2022, Coal India Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

“As advised by ministry of coal, the Coal India Ltd board in its 438th meeting held on March 10, 2022, had accorded its ‘inprinciple’ approval to divest 25% of paid-up share capital of BCCL held by Coal India Ltd and its subsequent listing on stock exchanges and advised to forward the proposal to ministry of coal for obtaining further clearances,” the filing said.

Stating that the company’s board had given only “in-principle” approval to the proposal, Coal India said that only after getting further clearance from the government, subsequent action would be initiated.

“On receipt of further clearance from ministry of coal the same would be placed to Coal India board and the decision of Coal India board would be promptly disseminated to stock exchanges,” the filing said.

In FY’21, BCCL achieved a production of 24.66 million tonnes, against the target of 37.13 million tonnes and offtake of 23.13 million tonnes against the target of 37.13 million tonnes.

The net turnover of the company during the financial year 2020-2021 was ₹6,149.81 crore against the previous year turnover of ₹8,967.56 crore.

This significant fall in sales affected the bottom line of the company’s finances, according to BCCL’s annual report.

As a result, the company could not maintain its profitability unlike previous years and incurred a net loss of ₹1,577.06 crore. Its profit before tax stood at ₹991.12 crore in the financial year 2019-20, the report said.

Coal India accounts for more than 80% of the country’s domestic coal output.