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Shipping Corp of India stake sale by Dec

The privatisation of state-run Shipping Corporation of India, the country's largest shipping line, will be completed by December, an official at a firm advising the government on the sale said on Monday.

The government, which owns 80 per cent of the shipping company, plans to sell a 51-per cent stake to a strategic investor.

"We should be able to identify the buyer and complete the sale by the end of this year," D P Roy, chairman of SBI Capital Markets Ltd, told reporters on the sidelines of a business meeting in Kolkata.

He said there were four bidders for SCI, but did not reveal their names.

Union Shipping Minister Ved Prakash Goyal said last month that 90 per cent of the privatisation process in SCI was over and the stake sale would be completed by December-January.

SBI Capital Markets and Lazard Brothers are advising the central government on the privatisation of SCI, which has a fleet of 94 ships and handles 40 per cent of the country's shipping tonnage.

Roy said that reservations expressed by some Union ministers about stake sales in several state-owned firms would not hinder SCI's privatisation.

India's privatisation drive hit a roadblock in September after differences within the ruling central coalition forced the government to defer stake sales in state-owned oil refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp.

But Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee subsequently came out in support of privatisation, saying that the government would pursue the programme, although its policies were open to debate.

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