New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) empowered Alternative Mechanism (AM) comprising Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, and Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent charge) Ministry of Science and Technology, has approved the highest price bid of Nandal Finance and Leasing for sale of 100 per cent equity shareholding of GoI in Central Electronics Ltd (CEL), a CPSE under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). The winning bid is for Rs 210,00,60000 (rupees two hundred ten crore sixty thousand only).
The process for disinvestment of CEL commenced on 27.10.2016 with the ‘in-principle’ approval of CCEA. In the first iteration, due process was followed for strategic sale of CEL, and the final SPA, along with 'Request for Proposal' document were shared with the Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) on 02.05.2019, inviting financial bid by 20.06.2019. However, no financial bids were received. The process was re-launched on 3rd February 2020 with issue of Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) and request for Expressions of Interest (EOI). The last date of submission of EoI was extended to 15.7.2020 due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation.
The entire disinvestment process has been carried out in a transparent manner with due regard to confidentiality of the bidders, through multi-layered decision making involving Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CDG) and the empowered Alternative Mechanism (AM) at the apex Ministerial level, said an official statement. The next step will be to issue the Letter of Intent (LoI) and then sign the Share Purchase Agreement following which, the conditions precedent would need to be satisfied by the successful bidder, the company and Government. It is expected that the transaction will be completed during the current FY 2021-22. /BI/
