After failing to find a buyer last year, the Indian government has put the Alloy Steel Plant (ASP) of state-run steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) up for sale once again by putting it in a list of 35 state-run enterprises for strategic sale, government officials said on Tuesday, May 14.
According to the officials, the government will this time ensure a speedier process to complete the sale and is likely to set a timeline of four months from the date of issue of sale notification to complete the outright sale of ASP, which is located at Durgapur in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
The previous government process had not stipulated any timelines and the sale process would drag on for months and even years putting off prospective investors.
On February 14, 2018, the government had floated a “Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) and an “Expression of Interest Requests” for sale of 100 percent equity to private investors. However, this failed to attract any investor and earlier this year SAIL issued an “annulment notification” cancelling the strategic sale.