Comments
The minority institutional shareholders have exited Steel Complex Ltd, which is now a joint venture with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).
After the formation of the 50:50 joint venture, the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), one of the promoters along with the State Government and SAIL, had offered an exit option to the minority shareholders constituting 12.6 per cent of the equity of the company and, according to company sources, financial institutions consisting of IDBI, ICICI, New India Assurance and National Insurance Company had accepted the offer.
The institutions accounted for around six per cent of the minority shareholding and the balance was held by individual investors.
While the institutions fully offloaded their shares before the exit option came to a close on August 16, roughly three per cent of the individual investors did not respond to it, the sources said.
The joint venture, which was formally launched in February, envisages equal holdings by the State Government and SAIL and accordingly 87.60 per cent of the equity was split between the joint venture partners. The minority holdings, now available, will also be equally shared between them.
The joint venture was cleared by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) last year as part of the rehabilitation plan for the state-owned company.
Its shares were already delisted from the BSE in 2004 and after the joint venture move was initiated, the shares listed on the Cochin Stock Exchange were also voluntarily delisted.
Steel Complex Ltd was started as a joint venture between KSIDC and a private entrepreneur in 1969 and the mini steel plant was set up in 1972 with an installed annual capacity of 37,000 tonnes.
Later, KSIDC procured more than 50 per cent of the shares.
The company had been making steel using various grades of scrap, hot briquetted iron and pig iron and the capacity was raised to 55,000 tonnes with the commissioning of a third arc furnace.
However, the company fell on bad days necessitating a rehabilitation package.
The joint venture with SAIL envisages setting up a re-rolling mill for producing TMT bars with an annual capacity of 65,000 tonnes.
The foundation stone for the re-rolling mill was laid in February along with the formalisation of the joint venture.
The preliminary work on the mill had already started and it was expected to be commissioned within the next 18 months, sources said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.