Govt scraps strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans

livemint.com:

New Delhi: The government Monday scrapped the strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans Ltd, a public sector enterprise under the ministry of civil aviation, after it disqualified the successful bidder Star 9 Mobility Pvt Ltd on grounds of one of its consortium partners of being embroiled in a separate legal case where adverse rulings have been issued by the company law tribunal.  Mint had reported in February, and April, that the government found that a partner of the winning bidder consortium had adverse rulings issued by the National Company Law Tribunal's Kolkata bench against it in another matter and that it had issued a show cause notice to the company concerned. Also, that the government intended to scrap the disinvestment process altogether.   "Government has decided that successful bidding consortium M/s Star 9 Mobility Pvt Ltd is disqualified from the process of strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans Ltd in terms of provisions of PIM and RFP," the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) said in a statement Monday.

PIM is preliminary information memorandum and RFP request for proposals.  "Further, the current EoI process for strategic disinvestment stands annulled," the statement added. The department said that the decision by the government was taken after 'careful consideration' of the response of the successful bidder to the show cause notice, and with the approval of alternative mechanism, empowered by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which comprised minister of road transport and highways, minister of finance and minister of civil aviation.   An official said that the government may not seek fresh bids for the public sector enterprise, the official said.