A Dossier on Visakhapatnam
Almost all Steel Plant Unions oppose RINL decision to offload 10 percent of shares to merchant bankers.
Steel Plant, September 5, 2011
The leading unions of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant have opposed the decision to list Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited by floating an IPO. The leading unions of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant met the top officials of RINL at Ukkunagaram and expressed their dissent over the Government of India's decision to appoint merchant bankers to sell away 10 per cent of its shares. The deadline for bids from merchant bankers for the IPO ends tomorrow at 3:30 pm. Presentations would be given by the bankers of September 8 and Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) would shortlist the bids.
Adinarayana, the president of Visakha Steel Workers' Union said that the decision to offload 10 percent of government's shares will pave the way for offloading majority stake to private parties. He said that they prefer losing Navratna status to going public.
It is to be noted that to confer the Navratna status on RINL, one of the conditions that has to be met is that the company has to be listed within two years. The GoI is of the opinion that the shares will get appreciation only if RINL equity is open to outsiders. And only reputed category-I merchant bankers registered with SEBI are permitted to apply for Book Running Lead Managers. The shortlisted banker would suggest the government in capital restructuring of RINL.
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