NMDC looking to acquire more overseas assets

Hyderabad, Feb 13 (IANS) Sitting on cash reserves of Rs.22,000 crore, National Mineral Development Corporation, India’s largest iron ore producer, is looking to acquire more assets overseas.

C.S. Verma, NDMC chairman and managing director, told reporters here that they were looking into various proposals for acquisitions including four proposals for coal and another three to four iron ore assets.

“These are opportune times. We are looking into various proposals and depending on the merit of each case, we will take a view,” he said.

Verma, however, declined to give any time frame to complete the acquisitions, saying they were not in a hurry.

He said NDMC was also looking at overseas acquisitions through Legacy Iron Ore, an Australian company in which NDMC bought 50 percent stake.

The public sector miner as an active partner of International Coal Ventures Limited is looking to acquire various coal assets in different countries.

To another query, Verma said NMDC was trying to operationalise the licence it got for a gold mine in Tanzania.

“We have to complete prospecting and then only we can have a time frame,” he said.

He denied that NMDC proposed to invest in other state-owned companies.

The company’s proposed Rs.16,000-crore steel plant in Chhattisgarh has also gathered momentum.

Verma said it has so far invested Rs.3.500 crore and placed orders worth Rs.13,000 crore.

The money for overseas acquisitions, steel plant and the expansion of its iron ore capacity will come from Rs.30,000 crore capital expenditure earmarked for the 12th five-year plan (2012-17).

The company’s capex has gone up by 10 times from Rs.3,000 crore during the 11th five-year plan.

IANS 2013-02-13 22:38:02