Pratibha Shipping wins MRPL deal

Mumbai-based Pratibha Shipping Company, which owns six tanker vessels, has secured a contract from Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC, for transporting fuel to Mauritius for three years.

MRPL has signed an agreement with the State Trading Corporation of Mauritius for exporting petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and fuel oil worth $2 billion.

Pratibha Shipping has signed a Contract of Afreightment (CoA) with MRPL and will deploy two tankers to ship fuel from India to Mauritius.

Sunil Pawar, managing director, Pratibha Shipping, confirmed the development but did not divulge the details or value of the contract.

Pawar, speaking on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the offshore segment, said the company was planning to acquire three to four tankers for further expanding its activities.

"Besides tankers, we are also planning to acquire three to four floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels," he said. FPSO vessels are normally used by offshore oil and gas industry to transport cargo from the platforms.

The company has also firmed up plans to hit the capital market with an IPO within the next seven months. "We have appointed Yes Bank as merchant bankers for the proposed public issue, which will dilute 25 to 30 per cent of the promoters' stake," Pawar said. Meanwhile, Pratibha Shipping is also planning to raise a debt of over Rs 100 crore to fuel the expansion programmes.

"Leading engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has also evinced interest to fund the expansion plans of Pratibha Shipping," sources added.