Sesa Goa bids in a week

Kumar Mangalam Birla joins the race.

The race for Sesa Goa, the country's largest mining company, could end soon, with Mitsui & Co, the company's Japanese promoter, setting a deadline of February 19 for suitors to submit bids for its 51 per cent stake.

Meanwhile, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said his group was in the fray for the company.

"We are looking at Sesa Goa, which fits our strategy well," Birla said. In addition to Birla's closely held Essel Mining & Industries, several foreign and domestic metal and mining companies have lined up to acquire Sesa Goa, including Arcelor Mittal, mining majors BHP Billiton, CVRD and Rio Tinto, and Vedanta group's Sterlite Industries.

Mitsui's advisor Morgan Stanley might take a fortnight after the submission of bids to select the winning bidder.

Once the bidder has acquired Mitsui's 51 per cent stake, it will have to make a 20 per cent open offer for the other shareholders of Sesa Goa. At the current stock price of Rs 1,829 a share, the company is valued at Rs 7,200 crore.

Thus, the acquisition of a 71 per cent stake "" 51 per cent from Mitsui and 20 per cent from retail shareholders "" will cost the winner Rs 5,100 crore. The company is believed to have extractable iron ore reserves of 150 million tonnes.

Sources in a company that has completed due diligence on Sesa Goa told Business Standard that the high share price of Sesa Goa might be a deterrent to the sale.

Bankers said a foreign company might be interested in paying a premium to get hold of Sesa Goa, which operates mines in Goa, Karnataka and Orissa and exports iron ore to China, Japan, Europe and Pakistan, as it would give it entry into the country.

Share prices of Sesa Goa have soared by as much as 22 per cent since the beginning of January when news broke out that Mitsui had put its stake on the block.

The stock reached its 52-week high of Rs 2,000 on January 29.