After a gap of about 14 years, the Narendra Modi-government has kick-started the process of the strategic sale of state-owned assets with Calcutta-based Bridge and Roof going under the hammer among others.
The department of investment and public asset management (Dipam) has asked interested bidders to submit their expressions of interest (EoI) to buy out a 100 per cent stake in PSU construction firm Bridge & Roof Company by December 6 and the EoIs will be opened on December 25, 2018.
The government plans to sell a 99.35 per cent stake and transfer management control in Bridge & Roof Company. The miniratna PSU operates in the engineering and construction sector.
A miniratna company can incur a capital expenditure of up to Rs 500 crore on new projects, modernisation and the purchase of equipment without the government’s approval.
Other shareholders in the firm are Balmer Lawrie and retail investors.
The 90-year old company, better known for its Bailey bridges and wagons, got the miniratna status a few years back. The company had posted a profit after tax of Rs 21.20 crore and a total revenue of Rs 2,053 crore in 2017-18.
Established in 1920, Bridge & Roof (B&R) is under the administrative control of the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises. It had equity and liability of Rs 1,636 crore at the end of 2016-17 and total assets of Rs 1,636 crore. The data also showed that the firm had orders worth Rs 6,607 crore at the end of 2017-18.
The firm has 1,244 permanent employees and has 1,945 contractual employees by the end of the last fiscal.
The heavy industries ministry had earlier proposed that Bridge & Roof should be merged with engineering consultancy EPIL and become its projects implementation arm.
A few years back, the government had considered listing it but the idea was abandoned because of the turmoil in the market.
B&R is likely to benefit from the initiatives of the central government to increase the highway network, expand power generation capacity, address the housing shortage and upgrade several cities to smart cities, the EoI document said.
Other companies on the list of strategic sales include Scooters India, Pawan Hans, Central Electronics, BEML and Bharat Pumps Compressors Ltd.
