PTI Congress leader Rahul Gandhi The Congress raised several questions on the November 29 strategic disinvestment of Sahibabad-located Central Electronics Limited ( CEL ), a public sector undertaking ( PSU ) under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The party alleged that not only was the profit-making PSU, founded in 1974 with expertise to commercially exploit indigenous technologies developed by national laboratories and research and development Institutions in the country, grossly undersold by fixing the reserve price at ₹194 crore but also Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd , which bought it for ₹210 crore, had questionable professional credentials and track record.
Dubbing the transaction as the Modi government’s “year-end sale”, AICC spokesman Gaurav Vallabh said at Wednesday’s official briefing that as of March 31, CEL had a land possession of 202,000 square metres, making for a valuation of ₹440 crore as per the circle rate.He asked how the reserve price of CEL was fixed at a mere 20% of its value.
“Based on equity valuation as per share market price, the valuation of CEL was estimated at ₹957 crore.Based on other methods (discounted cash flow) and other conservative assumptions about the future growth, the valuation lies somewhere close ₹1,300-1,600 crore,” said Vallabh.”CEL is a profit-making PSU with net sales of ₹296 crore and gross profit of ₹136 crore in 2020-21.
As of October 31, 2021, CEL has pending orders worth ₹1,592 crore.With these orders alone, CEL would give GoI a gross profit of about ₹730 crore.”
Questioning how the sale was conducted with just two bidders, Vallabh alleged, “There were two bidders, M/s Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd and M/s JPM Industries.
Both the bidders are interrelated to each other through their parent companies and have Quote: d bid price nearly equal to the reserve value of ₹194 crore.
M/s Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd Quote: d a price bid of ₹210 crore and M/s JPM Industries Ltd Quote: d a price bid of ₹190 crore”.
As per the financial statements of 2019-20, Vallabh said, Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd has less than 10 employees and none has rendered five years of continuous service.
He said 99.96% of equity of the company was held by Premier Furnitures and Interiors, which is not at all related with the business of CEL.”A case against M/s Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd is pending in NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal),” he said.
He also asked whether the government evaluated the interconnection between the bidders and why such a PSU was handed over to a company with less than 10 employees and no domain experience.
( Originally published on Dec 30, 2021 ) Read More News on psu cel nandal finance and leasing pvt ltd leasing pvt ltd vallabh industries ltd
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