Jan. 25 （Bloomberg） -- India has no obligation to sell its 49 percent stake in Bharat Aluminium Co. to parent Sterlite Industries （India） Ltd., Mines Secretary S. Vijay Kumar said, citing a mediation panel’s verdict today.
The three-member panel formed by Sterlite and the government ruled that the state is free to hold the shares for as long it wants and choose a buyer, Kumar said today in a phone interview in New Delhi. Pramod Suri, a director of Bharat Aluminium, also known as Balco, didn’t answer calls to his mobile phone.
Sterlite, India’s largest copper producer, bought 51 percent of Bharat Aluminium in 2001, with an option to buy the remaining stake at a price decided by an expert panel three years later, according to B.L. Bagra, the finance director of National Aluminium Ltd. and the government’s valuation expert in the case. The government rejected Sterlite’s claim on the remaining stake in 2004 after aluminum prices rose, boosting the valuation of its holding, he said today in an interview.
India appointed SBI Capital Markets Ltd. in Dec. 12 to evaluate the government’s stake, according to the finance ministry.
Sterlite is free to appeal against the panel’s decision to the high court, Vijay Kumar said.
豫公网安备41010502003434号