ACC, Lafarge and OCL bid for Idcol Cement

 The Orissa government has 87 per cent stake in the company while the rest 13 per cent is owned by UTI. Sources said, though six parties had responded to invitation of expression of interest for take over of the unit, only three of them- ACC, Lafarge and OCL had submitted financial bids.

 Meanwhile, the inter department core committee of the state government opened the bids for evaluation here today. However, the officials were tight lipped on the value of the offers made by various prospective buyers.

 The Orissa government had decided to sale the unit following continuous losses though the unit had shown some signs of recovery in last two years. Deloitte Touche Tomhatsu had been appointed as the adviser for the sale process.

 The 9.60 lakh tonne per annum Idcol Cement plant, located in Bargarh district of Orissa, is considered as one of the best cement making facilties in eastern India following its expansion and modernisation in 1995.

 However, the unit has been under performing for last few years because of its inability to keep pace with the increased thrust on marketing by the private players. The capacity utilization of the plant was only 74 per cent in 2001-02.

 Following rationalisation of work force of Idcol Cement through introduction of VRS, the number of employees per tonne of installed capacity has gone down significantly. The wage cost of the plant now stands at Rs six per bag which compares favourably with the private sector.

 Idcol Cement is one of the five units selected for disinvestments by the government in the first phase of the privatization programme slated to be completed by October, 2003.

 The other units are Nayagarh and Badamba cooperative sugar mills and two more units of Idcol- Hira Industrial Works (HIW) and Idcol Re-rolling Mill (IRM).