Privatization of Indian state-run steel producer Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) will be completed by December this year, company managing director R K Jha said in a statement on Thursday, September 2.
He said that the process of disinvestment of the government equity stake in NINL has been put on a “fast track and was in an advanced stage”.
According to Mr. Jha, once the privatization process is complete by December, all pending dues of workers and employees who have not received salaries and wages since March 2020 will be cleared.
NINL operates a 3 million mt per year steel mill in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. Domestic private steel companies, Tata Steel, JSW Limited and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited (AMNS), are in the fray to acquire the financially stressed NINL through the privatization process.
The equity capital of NINL is held by government trading firm MMTC Limited (49.78 percent), government iron ore miner NMDC Limited (10.10 percent), steel consultancy firm MECON (0.68 percent), government engineering company BHEL (0.68 percent), Odisha government company IPICOL (12 percent), and Odisha government mining company OMC Limited (20.47 percent).