AAGL on track for sale after approval on disinvestment

Alcock Ashdown Gujarat Limited (AAGL), the state's shipbuilding company, has secured green signal from the Gujarat government for its 100 per cent equity stake sale and has appointed consultants for its valuation.

The proposal for disinvestment of the company has been under consideration since July 2006 with the Government of Gujarat (GoG). The state government had invited expression of interest for appointing consultants in November last year. The government has given approval for its hundred percent equity stake sale in the company. A consultant has been appointed for doing the valuation, and within 20 weeks they shall submit the report," a top AAGL official said. The company staring at losses pegged close to over Rs 96 crore, on a contract bagged from the Ministry of Defence for constructing six survey vessels for the Indian Navy, is on track for sale now. Originally, a British owned company engaged in shipbuilding and ship repairs, it had went into liquidation, and was taken over by Government of India (GoI) in 1975 and subsequently acquired by the Government of Gujarat in 1994.

AAGL has been rapped by CAG for not safeguarding its financial interest, thereby exposing it to probable loss of Rs 96.42 crore in execution of a contract bagged from the Indian Navy, for constructing six survey vessels. The company had bagged a contract for construction of six survey vessels (Catamarans) for the Indian Navy from Ministry of Defence (MoD), at an aggregate price of Rs 698.91 crore, in 2006, the CAG report stated.