The expression of interest (EoI) for privatization of Indian government owned steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) will only be floated after discussions with all stakeholders, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday and the first official indication that the privatization process has been put on the backburner.
“EoI for strategic disinvestment requires broad contours of the transaction, including core and non-core land and assets, which would form part of transaction. These issues are to be settled after discussion with various stakeholders before the EoI for this transaction can be issued. The EoI (for RINL) has not been issued,” junior minister of finance Bhagwat Karad informed Parliament.
As per government rules transaction of strategic disinvestment of a government run enterprise follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, Expression of Interest (EoI) is invited from prospective bidders.
In the second stage, qualified interested bidders are allowed to carry out due diligence on the CPSE. Following the submission of financial bids, the reserve price is fixed and then valid financial bids from qualified bidders are opened and based on the best bid, the letter of intent is issued to the selected strategic buyer.
RINL operates a 7.3 million mt steel mill at southern port town of Vishakhapatnam.