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SCI stake sale plan on schedule

The divestment minister on Friday dismissed media reports that the government's plans to privatise state-owned Shipping Corp of India, the nation's largest shipping company, had been delayed.

The Times of India newspaper on Friday quoted unnamed sources as saying price bids for a 51 per cent stake in SCI could be delayed because the firm had lost assured revenue from transporting crude for domestic oil firms after the decontrol of the oil sector.

The government said earlier this month that bids for SCI would be invited by August instead of July because it was awaiting security clearance for the firm's privatisation.

"Our colleagues have said there is no further delay," Arun Shourie told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

Shourie said the privatisation of National Aluminium Company Ltd, India's second-largest aluminium maker, would also take place as scheduled.

Nalco is to be privatised through a domestic issue which is expected in three months, followed by an overseas float in six to eight months and also a strategic sale.

The government, which currently holds 87.15 per cent in Nalco and plans to reduce its holding to 26 per cent, has already appointed a consortium of advisers for the proposed stake sale.

"We are working at considerable speed and when the advisers and others who are appointed say the market is right, then all those things will be done," Shourie said.

The privatisation of Nalco and SCI are a part of the government's ambitious plan to raise Rs 120 billion ($2.45 billion) from stake sales by next March in a bid to bridge its yawning fiscal deficit.

The government's decade-old, faltering privatisation plan got a boost earlier this year which it sold controlling stakes in a giant telecom firm, an oil marketing company and several others mostly to private bidders.

SCI ended 2.9 per cent lower at Rs 86.50, while Nalco closed 0.6 per cent down at Rs 97.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, whose main index ended 0.86 per cent up.

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