The government has extended indefinitely the cut-off date for submission of bids for its stake in
of India (SCI), according to multiple people aware of the matter. The due date was earlier January 18.
Qualified bidders are said to have requested more time to do due diligence on the vessel operator, these people said.
The bidders have not been able to carry out physical inspections of ships, according to the people cited earlier.
SCI’s ships have been sailing offshore and not all of them have been available for inspection in India.
As of November 30, 2020, SCI owned a fleet of 59 vessels.
AgenciesAnother cause for the delay in the bidding process is the ongoing demerger of the company’s non-core assets, according to one of the sources cited earlier. “The demerger process is taking longer than anticipated,” an executive familiar with the matter said. Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary at the Department for Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), could not be reached for comment. At least three bidders have qualified to bid for SCI after the government invited expressions of interest for the company.
These include US-based Safesea, a consortium led by UK’s Foresight Group, and Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering. It is not clear if Vedanta is bidding for the company, though its chairman Anil Agarwal has said they are evaluating SCI among assets that the government has put up for privatisation.
The Foresight consortium has lost one of its key members.
Belgium-based Exmar NV, a company founded by the Saverys family, who are the pioneers of Belgium’s shipping industry, was initially part of the Foresight consortium but later pulled out. Foresight has been looking for partners to replace them.
The government recently put on hold the sale of Central Electronics.
