The Indian government has approved the disinvestment of state-run Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited (FSNL), thereby greenlighting the $38 million bid of Japan’s Konoike Transport Company Limited to take over the mining and metals company with full management control, a government statement said on Friday, September 20.
The alternative mechanism, empowered by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), comprising Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport and highways, Nirmala Sitharaman, minister for finance, and H. D. Kumaraswamy, minister of steel, has approved the highest bid amounting to $38 million of Konoike Transport Co. Ltd for the sale of a 100 percent quality shareholding of MSTC Ltd in Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited (FSNL) along with transfer of management control,” a statement from the finance ministry said on Thursday this week.
FSNL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of government-run trading firm MSTC Limited.
FSNL, under the ministry of Steel, was incorporated in 1979 to provide steel mill services. It specializes in the recovery and processing of scrap from slag and refuse generated during iron and steel making across different steel plants.
The government had granted in-principle approval in October 2016 for strategic disinvestment of the entire equity shareholding of MSTC in FSNL to a buyer to be identified through a two-stage auction process.