The government plans to sell another five per cent stake in Container Corporation of India (Concor), the ₹5,944-crore publicly- listed firm, according sources in the know requesting anonymity.

Specific details are being worked out, the sources added, without specifying any timeline. At present, the government holds a 61.79 per cent stake in the blue chip ‘Navaratna’ company.

Concor, a Railway Ministry subsidiary, operates in the container train operations space. It accounts for almost two-thirds of container cargo handled in the rail sector and has a network of over 60 inland container depots and container freight stations, apart from having a partial stake in container terminal operations at JN Port in a joint venture with APM Terminals.

The company's share price has moved up in the last two years, reflecting a sharp rise in its market capitalisation, which was at ₹30,882 crore on March 31, 2015, up 63.22 per cent against ₹18,921 crore on March 31, 2014. In the past one year, Concor has beaten the BSE’s public sector unit index, which saw a 19.71 per cent growth; as well as the Sensex, which saw almost 25 per cent growth. The company’s stock closed at ₹1,825.4 on Friday.

Concor plans to diversify by investing in private freight terminals, which will allow it to develop terminals along rail tracks to handle non-containerised cargo. It plans to develop six-eight terminals over two-three years.

It has also started diversifying into the air cargo space by floating a company, Concor Air Ltd, and bagging the rights to operate the air cargo complex in GVK-backed Mumbai International Airport Ltd.

Additionally, it has ventured into the cold chain space. The company, which has a current capacity ofthree million twenty-feet equivalent units (TEU), plans to increase it to over five million TEUs by 2017.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW