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Financial bids for a majority stake in Chhattisgarh-based NMDC Steel (NSL), an arm of Union government-owned miner NMDC, will likely be delayed till Lok Sabha elections are over in May next year. The deferment of the proposed sale of the Centre’s 50.79% stake in NSL is because the privatisation plan is being opposed by the Congress, which runs the incumbent government in Chhattisgarh, at the hustings.
The stake on the block is expected to fetch at least Rs 11,000 crore to the Centre, given NSL’s new 3 million tonne per annum (mtpa) hi-smelt technology at Nagarnar.
The financial bids for NSL, which were expected after the new plant was commissioned in August, have been put on hold, sources said.With the operationalisation of the blast furnace, the steel plant based on new technology has recently become fully operational. Investor interest in the plant is seen to be robust, and due diligence for financial bids were about to be under way.
