BHUBANESWAR: Even as Stemcor Holdings, the London- headquartered steel trading company, is looking for a suitable buyer to sell its Odisha assets, including two mines and a steel manufacturing unit, the State Government is still clueless on the goings on.
“We have no knowledge about such a move. Nobody has brought it to our notice (Stemcor’s plan to dispose of its mining assets),” said a senior officer of the Steel and Mines department.
Such a response from the State Government came when the Stemcor website said the company is in talks with several interested parties for selling its Indian assets. “Over the course of next two years, Stemcor will continue to dispose of non-core activities. This will include the sale of its Indian assets where discussions with a number of interested parties are ongoing,” states the company’s website.
The irony is that the overseas company, which assumed management control of Aryan Mining & Trading Corporation Pvt Ltd (AMTC) on October 28, 2008 without approval of the State, has made a serious attempt to sell its Odisha assets. The Calcutta High Court threw a spanner last year on September 19 by restraining Stemcor from selling its assets. The High Court passed an interim order in response to a petition of a private bank.
The AMTC is the lease holder of Narayanposhi iron ore and manganese mines spread over an area of 349.254 hectares and Mahulsukha manganese mines (399.838 hectares) in Koira mining circle of Sundargarh district.
The company has a subsidiary, Brahmani River Pellets Ltd (BRPL), which has a four million tonne per annum beneficiation plant at Barbil and a pellet plant complex at Jajpur, connected by a 220 km underground slurry pipeline. Stemcor is also a stakeholder in Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL).
In May last year, the British trading company invited bids for sale of its Odisha assets to repay $ 850 million loans due to considerable fall in the steel trade. Steel majors, including Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Steel and Essel Mining of Aditya Birla Group were the bidders.
Curiously, Stemcor’s move to dispose of Odisha assets came at a time when the Justice M B Shah Commission, probing into irregularities in the mining sector, was all set to submit its final report to the Centre.
Though the debt laden Stemcor claims that the sale of the two companies was part of a restructuring plan to repay a loan, sources said the overseas company was in a hurry to quit Odisha business before the Centre brings in new rules to regulate the mining sector, which is in a complete disarray.
Taking strong objection to the acquisition of AMTC mines and BRPL by a foreign company, Justice Shah Commission has recommended a CBI probe into the illegal transaction.
Several attempts to contact the Stemcor’s local office here proved futile, while the company did not respond to an e-mail query from “Express.”