Centre to start sale Balmer Lawrie soon

New Delhi: After a long pause of 2 years the central government is going to start the process of disinvestment of Balmer Lawrie which is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. 

Back in 2020, the government decided to privatize the company, but after that, it gave a pause due to the issue of valuation.

In the case of Balmer Lawrie, the Indian government had decided to sell its 52.63% stake in the company through strategic disinvestment. The process of disinvestment was initiated in 2020, and the government invited bids from interested parties for the sale of its stake in the company.

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In December 2020, the government received multiple bids from interested parties, including private companies and consortiums. The bidding process was conducted in a two-stage process, where interested bidders were required to submit an expression of interest (EOI) followed by a request for proposal (RFP) stage.

In March 2021, the government announced that it had selected the Tata Group as the highest bidder for the strategic disinvestment of Balmer Lawrie.

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However, as of April 2023, the disinvestment process has not been completed, and it is unclear whether the transaction has been completed or not.

In her new budget speech Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman states that the government set a disinvestment target of Rs 65,000 crore for FY23.

Balmer Lawrie, a 155-year-old company has eight Strategic Business Units – Industrial Packaging, Greases & Lubricants, Chemicals, Travel & Vacations, Logistics Infrastructure, Logistics Services, Cold Chain and Refinery & Oil Field Services, with offices spread across the country and abroad.

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