Boc In Talks To Buy Tata Steel Oxygen Units

BOC India is in talks with Tata Steel for acquiring its oxygen plants. Talks are at a preliminary stage and various options including and operations & management (O&M) contract of these plants are being explored, sources close to the development said.

BOC already has an oxygen plant of 1290 tonne per day capacity plant at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur.

The company is also in parleys with ICICI for restructuring its loans amounting to Rs 150 crore.

"We are in talks to bring down the interest rate even further" said S K Menon, finance director BOC India. The present cost of borrowing is Rs 12.3 per cent.

Of the Rs 150 crore, around Rs 70 crore was due to ICICI. BOC was however endeavouring to prepay Rs 20 crore. There are also plans of bringing down the present equity of Rs 49 crore, said Sanjiv Lamba, managing director of BOC India.

Financial restructuring apart, BOC has embarked on commercial restructuring. The company will increasingly focus on O&M contracts. The contracts division of BOC has bagged the first order from ONGC for a tank vapour recovery system for their LPG complex in Uran.

The other projects were a 240 tonne per day of gaseous oxygen for Indo Gulf Corporation's Birla Copper unit and an "imminent win" is a major contract from Indian Oil refinery in Baroda, for supply of 250 tonne per day high purity nitrogen generator. The order book position of the division is around Rs 50 crore.

Lamba said, BOC India will also gain some sub-contracting jobs in the South East Asia and Middle East courtesy BOC group's projects there.

Part of the commercial restructuring programme is BOC's initiative in the home care range of products. BOC India has just launched the latest version of the Newlife Oxygen Concentrator and the Mystique Nebulizer.

By 2004, medical services would account for around 50 per cent of BOC's profits, which at present stands at 20-25 per cent, said Lamba.