Govt invites bids for privatisation of NMDC's Nagarnar Steel Plant

The government on Thursday invited preliminary bids for strategic sale of NMDC's Nagarnar Steel Plant.

The last date for submitting bids for NMDC Steel Ltd is January 27, 2023, while the last date for submitting queries is December 29, 2022, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said.

NISP is in the process of being demerged from NMDC into a separate company NMDC Steel Ltd (NSL). Subsequent to demerger, shares of NSL will be listed on BSE, National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Calcutta Stock Exchange.

NSL will have mirror shareholding to NMDC i.e. government of India (GoI) shareholding of 60.79 per cent and public shareholding of 39.21 per cent.

Thereafter, GoI, via DIPAM, shall divest its 50.79 per cent shareholding in NSL along with management control to a strategic buyer through a two-stage competitive bidding process.

Demerger scheme has already been approved by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on October 6, 2022.

In the first stage, GoI is inviting EoIs from interested bidders for the sale of its 50.79 per cent shareholding in NSL, the DIPAM said.

NMDC is setting up a 3-million tonne per annum (MTPA) NMDC Iron and Steel Plant (NISP) at Nagarnar near Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh. NISP is under construction and is likely to be commissioned by March 2023.

In October, 2020, the Union Cabinet gave its 'in-principle' approval to the demerger of NISP from NMDC and strategic disinvestment of the resulting entity by selling the entire stake of the government of India.

Subsequently, GoI had decided to divest its 50.79 per cent shareholding in NMDC Steel Ltd along with management control. Additionally, GoI shall offer 10 per cent stake in NMDC Steel to NMDC after the strategic buyer is identified through the bidding process.