No suitors: Centre unlikely to pursue CEL disinvestment

A top government official said that a renewed sale process might not be worth the effort as the company under the ministry of science and technology was put on the block twice earlier without any success.

“There’s no immediate plan to put it on sale again… we had a real challenge because this was the second time and there were no bidders in the first time,” department of investment and public asset management (Dipam) Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in an interview. CEL was first put on sale in September 2018 when the government wanted to divest its full stake and transfer management control. The process was restarted in February 2020.

“We will have to see if it’s worth doing it again because it has to have sufficient interest. The attractiveness of the asset has to be seen as well,” Pandey said.

Dipam had also faced inadequate bidder interest in strategic disinvestment of Steel Authority of India Ltd unit Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISP), located in Bhadravathi, Karnataka. The divestment process has now been cancelled even as expressions of interest were sought back in July 2019.

The government had to scrap the strategic divestment of CEL as the selected bidder had failed to disclose its ongoing litigation in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The decision was taken after the government had held back the letter of intent that was to be issued to the winning bidder, Delhi-based Nandal Finance and Leasing, in January, following allegations against the bidder and the bidding process.

Nandal Finance has also been barred from further participation in CEL’s stake sale process.

The government had in November 2021 chosen the strategic buyer for sale of 100% equity shareholding in CEL for ₹210 crore, the highest price, after a transparent, open and competitive bidding process.

Meanwhile, the strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans Ltd is also hanging fire with a litigation against the winning bidder coming to light.