Company plans to acquire manganese reserves in South Africa, but poor infrastructure could increase costs significantly, says an official
Manganese Ore India Limited's (MOIL ) plans to acquire vast reserves of manganese in South Africa could prove costly for the company as the country lacks infrastructure and logistic facilities, a senior MOIL official told Moneylife.
"We are in initial stage of talks. Out of 5,000 million tonnes of manganese reserves in the world, South Africa owns 4,000 million tonnes. However, there are problems of logistics, power and infrastructure and the country meets only 20% of the world's requirements even though it has 80% of the reserves. The proposed investments in that country could be costly for us," said the MOIL official.
The company is also eyeing manganese reserves in Turkey and Congo. However, the official refused to comment on the progress of the both countries' reserves.
"The company may also form a joint venture for the acquisitions overseas reserves," added the official.
MOIL Limited, which accounts for about 50% of the manganese production in the country, will launch its initial public offering (IPO) comprising 33,600,000 shares on 26th November. Media reports say that the company is likely to raise Rs1,500 crore through the IPO. The issue will close for institutional bidders on 30th November and on 1st December for retail investors.
The government has not disclosed the price band per share, which is likely to be announced on 22nd or 23rd November, said K J Singh, chairman and managing director, MOIL Limited.
"The government will divest 10% stake in MOIL, while the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments will sell 5% each. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh own 9.62% and 8.81%, respectively," Mr Singh added.
The company is setting up two ferro-alloy projects in separate joint ventures with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to increase the share of value-added products in the company's basket, said Mr Singh. The 50:50 joint ventures will be operational by July 2012, he added.
The joint venture with SAIL will be located at Bhillai and have capacity of 1.06 lakh tonnes with an investment of Rs400 crore, while the RINL joint venture will take about Rs200 crore investment and have capacity of 57,000 tonnes.
The company intends to increase production capacity from 1.1 million tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes as demand from steel sector, the largest consumer of manganese, is growing rapidly, said the company.
IDBI Capital, Edelweiss Capital and JP Morgan are the managers of the issue.
Inside story of the National Stock Exchange’s amazing success, leading to hubris, regulatory capture and algo scam
Fiercely independent and pro-consumer information on personal finance.
1-year online access to the magazine articles published during the subscription period.
Access is given for all articles published during the week (starting Monday) your subscription starts. For example, if you subscribe on Wednesday, you will have access to articles uploaded from Monday of that week.
This means access to other articles (outside the subscription period) are not included.
Articles outside the subscription period can be bought separately for a small price per article.
Fiercely independent and pro-consumer information on personal finance.
30-day online access to the magazine articles published during the subscription period.
Access is given for all articles published during the week (starting Monday) your subscription starts. For example, if you subscribe on Wednesday, you will have access to articles uploaded from Monday of that week.
This means access to other articles (outside the subscription period) are not included.
Articles outside the subscription period can be bought separately for a small price per article.
Fiercely independent and pro-consumer information on personal finance.
Complete access to Moneylife archives since inception ( till the date of your subscription )
