Govt seeks consultants for stake sale in 4 PSUS

TWO MONTHS after the Cabinet gave its in-principle approval for strategic sales in about 20 public sector undertakings (PSUS), the Centre on Friday sought to hasten the process by inviting bids from transaction advisers and legal advisers for 100 per cent stake sale in National Project Construction, Pawan Hans, Projects & Development India and Hindustan Prefab.

“The government proposes to engage transaction advisor from a reputed professional consulting firm, investment bankers, merchant bankers, financial institutions, banks, etc, for providing advisory services and managing the disinvestment process,” the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) said.

On October 27, the Cabinet gave in-principle approval to kick off the process for strategic sales in about 20 Psus/units, including profitable ones, to garner resources for sustaining the momentum of its spending in the current year and next.

Besides the above four, the government would pare its stake

On October 27, the govt gave in-principle approval to kick off the process for strategic sales in about 20 PSUS

in profit-making BEML from the present 54 per cent to 28 per cent, while it will fully exit Scooters India, Hindustan Newsprint, Ferro Scrap Nigam, Bridge & Roof Company India and Central Electronics. These apart, identified units of Cement Corporation of India, the Nagarnar steel plant of NMDC and Bhadrawati, Salem and Durgapur plants of SAIL would be sold.

Three PSUS — Hospital Services Consultancy, National Project Construction and Engineering Projects India — would be sold to PSUS in the same lines of business.

The stakes sales would happen through a two-stage auction process as recommended by a core group of secretaries on disinvestment. Analysts said the Centre was unlikely to meet this year’s strategic sale target of Rs 20,500 crore, as the process of these sales would take six to eight months on an average. FE