ABG Shipyard in talks for shipbuilding JV in Nigeria

ABG Shipyard is in talks with the Nigerian government and private equity investors to build a shipyard in Nigeria through a joint venture in which the Indian company will hold a 40% stake, a senior official said on Tuesday.

ABG Shipyard will provide technical expertise for the African venture and have management control for a period of 20 years, Chief Financial Officer Dhananjay Datar told Reuters.

"The timeline could be three or four years from now. We are the technical partner so there is unlikely to be a big investment from our side," he said over the telephone.

The investment details were yet to be finalised as the discussions were in initial stages, but a majority of the investments would come from the private equity partners and the Nigerian government, Datar said.

The unit will build large offshore and cargo vessels, Datar added.

In February, the company had said it expects fresh orders worth up to 30 billion rupees in calendar 2011, the bulk of it from the booming offshore and defence sectors. It has also received government approval to foray into defence-related contracts.

ABG Shipyard shares were up 0.83% at Rs 392.8 in a weak Mumbai market.