India’s ministry of coal is reconsidering plans to divest a stake in Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), the wholly-owned coking coal producing subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), which in turn is owned by the coal ministry, government sources indicated on Thursday, November 23.
The ministry in May 2022 had approved plans to divest a 25 percent equity stake in BCCL in favour of a private investor and to list the equity shares on the stock exchange.
CIL had also informed shareholders of the plans regarding the equity divestment and listing at its last annual general meeting.
However, with CIL equity shares performing well on stock exchanges and market capitalization of the coal producer appreciating by almost 25 percent over the last one year, the coal ministry is having second thoughts about divesting shares in BCCL which, as the largest coking coal producer among all wholly-owned operational subsidiaries, may have a negative impact on the market capitalization of CIL, the sources said.
With CIL setting a coal production target of 1.23 billion mt by 2024-25, BCCL will have a very important role in achieving the target and the government is not inclined to shift the focus to divestment in the latter subsidiary, the sources said.