No financial bids for PACL stake sale

Chandigarh,
The Punjab Government’s plans to rake in moolah by selling its stake in the loss-making public enterprise, Punjab Alkalis and Chemicals Limited (PACL), have been dashed to the ground. None of the four companies that had initially evinced interest in buying the company turned up with financial bids today.
The bid for buying the 44.26 per cent stake in the PACL was to be opened today. However, none of the four companies—Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) Pvt Ltd., Nirma Ltd, Punjab-based Kudos Chemie Ltd, and a consortium of Al Shemail Garments and Perfumes Trading LLC and Avenue Chemicals, came forward with their bids.The government will now have to invite fresh bids.
Sources in the industry told The Tribune that the bidders had jointly decided against giving their bids for the loss-making company. Other than buying the Punjab government’s stake (through the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation) for about Rs 110 crore, the successful bidder will also have to take upon himself the debt liability of Rs 40 crore. The PACL is a BSE listed company.
Senior officials said that last year the four companies had submitted their expression of interest (EOI), along with two other companies. The EOI was approved and pre-qualification of only these four companies was considered by the state government. This was also approved by Punjab’s global adviser for disinvestment Industrial Finance Corporation of India.
Besides the PSIDC, the other stakeholders in the PACL are the public (37.52 per cent), corporate bodies (15.78 per cent), mutual funds (0.06 per cent), banks (0.05 per cent) and FIIs and NRIs (2.33 per cent).
This is the fourth time that the government has been unsuccessful in diluting its stake in the PACL. The PACL has a plant in Naya Nangal in Ropar. It has an installed capacity of about 99,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). The company’s revenue was Rs 267.43 crore in 2013-14.