The government is expected to invite financial bids for Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) by September, after the process of demerger of non-core assets is done And, as part of the strategic-sale process, the government plans to segregate the real estate assets of the SCI - Shipping House, the training institute, and certain other non-core assets. The government will transfer these assets to a separate entity, to keep them away from the proposed privatisation.
Last week, the board of Shipping Corp met and approved an updated demerger scheme for hiving off the non-core assets of SCI to Shipping Corporation of India Land and Assets Ltd (SCILAL), including Shipping House in Mumbai and MTI (Maritime Training Institute) in Powai, to complete the process of de-merging all non-core assets to the new company SCILAL.
The SCI board of directors authorised a demerger scheme in August of last year, with SCILAL being formed in November 2021 to hold such assets of the firm, which is under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.
In April 2022, the Ministry asked SCI to hasten the process of demerger of non-core assets of SCI to SCILAL, as well as asking that the Board of SCI evaluate the demerger scheme for selling non-core assets such as Shipping House in Mumbai and MTI in Powai.
In December 2020, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) requested expressions of interest (EoI) for the strategic disinvestment of its whole 63.75 per cent stake in Shipping Corp of India, as well as management transfer.
The Cabinet gave in-principle agreement to the planned disposal of Shipping Corp in November 2020. The privatisation of SCI is expected to be completed this fiscal year. CPSE disinvestment is expected to bring approximately $65,000 crore in the current fiscal year 2022-23.
