Tata Steel today said it has not reached a decision on shortlisting any of the seven bidders for selling its loss making operations in Britain.
As many as seven bidders have expressed interest to acquire Tata Steel's British steelworks.
The Tata Group, which had set a deadline of noon on Monday for final bids for its British steel operations, was expected to finalise and shortlist the bidders at its board meeting today.
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"We haven't shortlisted any bidder for Tata Steel UK assets," Tata Steel CFO Koushik Chatterjee told reporters here.
"We are in talks with the British government," he added.
Indian-origin businessman Sanjeev Gupta owned Liberty House and a management buyout group Excalibur Steel - are believed to be the two front runners for the deal.
Tata had announced plans in March to sell its loss-making units in UK as a result of a global slump in steel prices due to a glut of exports from China and high energy costs.
Around 11,000 jobs at Port Talbot in Wales and 11 other UK sites hang in the balance.
Besides, Liberty House and Excalibur, family investment fund Greybull Capital, India's second-biggest steel maker JSW Steel, China's Hebei Iron and Steel group, US steel giant Nucor and Leeds-based turnaround fund Endless are among those interested to save the works.
Greybull, which is buying Tata's Scunthorpe steelworks for a token 1 pound, is believed to be keen on a deal for Port Talbot.
However, JSW has distanced itself, saying its interest was "exploratory".
Gupta's acquisition plan revolves around gradually replacing blast furnaces with electric arc furnace on the site, as part of his company's GreenSteel strategy.
Yesterday, UK business secretary Sajid Javid had met Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry to find a solution to save jobs at British operations of the Tatas.
This was the second meeting between Javid and Mistry.
The Tatas had acquired Corus Steel in April 2007 at the peak of commodity price hike cycle for over USD 12 billion, but has since then never been able to turn it around.
As per the agreements, Tata Steel will acquire majority
equity stake in CPDPL, and the port development is envisaged through a wholly-owned subsidiary, SPPL, the company said in a a statement.
The acquisition and development is subject to certain conditions precedent, detailed technical assessments and financial closure.
CPDPL, promoted by two technoprenuers, Ramani Ramaswamy and Ramaswamy Rangarajan, had entered into a concession agreement with Odisha to develop the Subarnarekha Port as an all-weather deep-draft facility.
Detailed engineering study to arrive at the configuration and the project cost will be undertaken soon.
Speaking on the development, Koushik Chatterjee, the Group Executive Director (Finance & Corporate) of Tata Steel, said, "The investment to develop the Subarnarekha Port will address the strategic needs of Tata Steel in the future."
"The location of the proposed port makes it attractive to structurally enhance the competitive position of our Indian operations and we look forward to working together with the current promoters to make Subarnarekha a very efficient port in the future. With the growth envisaged in Kalinganagar in the future, our offtake through Dhamra is also slated to increase," Chatterjee said.
Tata Steel India MD T V Narendran said, "As Tata Steel grows in India in the future, securing competitive logistics solution is a key aspect in de-risking our in-bound and out-bound supply chain.
