Thaindian News

Kolkata, Sep 20 (IANS) Copper mining major Hindustan Copper (HCL) Tuesday said it does not require fresh equity through the proposed follow-on-public offer (FPO) to support its mining expansion plans.

“The company does not require fresh equity to support its mining expansion plans. Accordingly, it has informed the ministry of mines that the disinvestment-cum-issue of fresh equity, which had been approved by the cabinet in June 2010, is being revised,” Hindustan Copper CMD Shakeel Ahmed told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s Annual General Meeting here.

“Now only a disinvestment of ten percent government of India holding will be made through the FPO,” he said.

He said it was likely that all the processes for the FPO would be in place in the next two months, but the disinvestment department would decide the exact timing.

The state-owned company revised its decision to raise fresh equity through FPO as it has decided to fund its expansion plans through internal accruals.

The earlier plan was to issue 10 percent fresh equity and another 10 percent disinvestment by the government through FPO.

Now a formal decision by the cabinet is required because the earlier decision had been taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

“Any change in this decision has to be taken by the government of India, ie, the CCEA. This process is likely to be completed in a couple of months,” Ahmed said.

The company is expanding its mining capacity from 3.4 million tonnes to 12.4 million tonnes.