The Hindu Business Line : NMDC set to get Navratna status

Decks have been cleared for granting Navratna status to the biggest domestic mining company, NMDC. The Steel Ministry has said that the Government is likely to issue a notification in the next few days on the issue.

“The Steel Ministry has recommended granting Navratna status to NMDC and a notification in this connection is expected in the next few days. Once the status is granted we would have fulfilled a long-standing demand of PSU employees in this connection,” the Union Minister for Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan said, while addressing the staff of NMDC here on Wednesday.

NMDC is already categorised as a Miniratna-1 company by the Department of Public Enterprises. The Minister also announced that owing to excellent performance of the PSU, a sum of Rs 25 crore would be distributed among the 5,500 employees apart from an ex-gratia of Rs 10,000 per employee. NMDC, from a modest profit of about Rs 48 crore in 1990-91, has come along way to pay the highest dividend of 352 per cent in 2006-07 with production of about 27 million tonnes of iron ore and a profit of around Rs 2,300 crore. The company entered the Rs 2 lakh crore market cap club in November last year, becoming the most coveted PSU after ONGC. The current market cap of the company is around Rs 1.69 lakh crore. Its shares have risen by more than Rs 3,000 during the past one month. The PSU has 1.6 per cent of its shares listed on the bourses.

NMDC would invest about Rs 18,000 crore in the next four years to ramp up its production capacity to 50 million tonnes and conduct fresh explorations, of which it would invest about Rs 400 crore this year. Mr Paswan also said that granting the Navratna status would enable NMDC to establish financial joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in India or overseas.

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