The Centre has invited SBI Caps to prepare a roadmap to rope in a strategic investor for Andrew Yule’s loss-making engineering division, according to sources. The unit manufactures industrial fans.

Discussions are also on about the fate of Andrew Yule’s 100 per cent subsidiary, Hooghly Printing, which is suffering from dearth of orders. However, no formal decision has been made yet.

Andrew Yule Chairman Debasis Jana was not available for comment, but banking sources confirmed the move. According to the latter, Andrew Yule may have to part with a majority stake in the division, as no prospective investor would acquire a minority stake in a sick company.

Formerly a managing agency, state-owned Andrew Yule made a ₹27-crore profit in FY17 on net sales of ₹423 crore and other income of ₹43 crore. Its shares (of ₹2 face value) closed at ₹30.70, down by 1.29 per cent, at the BSE on Tuesday.

According to the company’s FY17 annual report, 52 per cent of its turnover is contributed by its tea business and 35 per cent by the electrical division.

While the engineering division has negligible contribution to the turnover, its losses increased by 26 per cent to ₹3.82 crore during the period.

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