No disinvestment of NALCO

No disinvestment of NALCO

Agencies New Delhi

October 21 2005

The government today categorically ruled out disinvestment of public sector aluminium major National Aluminium Company (NALCO), saying there was no such consideration as of now.

"I have already made it clear that there is no such move on the anvil and we are under no pressure from any quarter to disinvest in NALCO," Mines Minister Sis Ram Ola told reporters here.

He said the company was performing fairly well and there was no reason to even go for offloading ten per cent of its stake, as was being reported by the media.

NALCO Chaimran and Managing Director C R Pradhan too said there was no pressure to offload stake to garner money for its proposed restructuring.

"Once the second phase of modernisation programme was over, the company expected to increase its production to 4.6 lakh tonnes per annum," Pradhan told newspersons after presenting a dividend cheque for Rs 112.30 crore to the government.

On the future of aluminium prices, the CMD said as long as London Metal Exchange (LME) continues to be strong the domestic aluminium prices too would remain stable.

Nalco has achieved the highest ever turnover and profit during the last fiscal. The turnover for the fiscal was Rs 4,43 9.99 crore and the net profit before tax was increased from Rs 737.37 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 1,234.84 crore in the last fiscal.

Pradhan said NALCO has initiated the pre-feasibility study for setting up a smelter at Dubai in the UAE. "Once the study was over then only we will take any decision," the CMD said.

He said the company had inventories of only ten to 12 days.