London-based Foresight Group International led by NRI businessman Ravi Mehrotra may not bid for Shipping Corporation of India Ltd (SCI) which is being privatised by the government, multiple sources said.

“Foresight is re-considering its interest to bid for SCI and is unlikely to participate in the financial bid expected sometime this week,” a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be named.

Foresight consortium originally included the group’s flagship company Foresight Offshore Drilling Limited SA, Belgium-listed shipping company Exmar NV and Dubai-based shipping company GMS DMCC. Late last year, Exmar quit the bidding consortium, putting a question mark on the Group’s ability to pursue a bid. Foresight’s departure will leave three bidders in the fray for the government’s 63.75 per cent stake in the country’s biggest ocean carrier: Vedanta Group, Safesea Group and Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd.

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Foresight did not respond to multiple mails seeking comment.

“The three international entrepreneurial shipping companies have come together with a unified belief in India’s long-term development and growth, and we intend to develop SCI into a global formidable shipping company,” Foresight Group Founder and Executive Chairman, Ravi Mehrotra had said in March last year after filing an expression of interest.

“With the exit of Exmar from the consortium, Foresight does not have the financial appetite to bid for SCI,” said a shipping industry source.

SCI runs a fleet of 59 ships of various types aggregating 2.94 million gross tonnage. The privatisation of SCI is targeted to be completed by the fiscal year ending March. The process has slowed a bit for some reasons, an official said.

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