The government today cleared the sale of 51 per cent stake in CMC Ltd to Tata Sons for Rs 152 crore and 74 per cent stake in another state-run firm, Hindustan Teleprinters, to Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd for Rs 55 crore. With these two deals, the government has opened its account on the disinvestment front. For the current fiscal, the Centre had fixed a target of Rs 12,000 crore as receipts from disinvestment proceeds.
Tata Sons was the only company left in fray for CMC with Wipro and Reliance pulling out of the race just before the last few days of submitting the financial bid. The government holds over 80 per cent in CMC, the balance being held by public and financial institutions.
Tata Sons, Wipro, Hewlett Packard and Sai Info had submitted their expression of interest (EOI) for acquiring government stake in CMC. KPMG was appointed as the global advisor by the government for the disinvestment in CMC Ltd.
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The government had fixed Rs. 300 crore as the minimum net worth required for companies wanting to participating in the disinvestment of CMC. In the case of consortiums and joint ventures formed or proposed to be formed for the purpose of participating in the sale, the net worth criteria will apply to the group as a whole.
The department of disinvestment had recently raised concern over the suspect price movement in the CMC scrip. The Securities and Exchange Board of India too had two days back said it would probe the unusual price movement in CMC. Following uncertainty over the divestment process, the CMC scrip had taken a beating in the bourses plunging by almost 35 per cent during the last week to just over Rs 200 per share.
CMC has five strategic business units (SBUs) for customer services, systems integrations, international operations, education and training. It also has a wholly-owned subsidiary