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Government Stake Sale In BEML To Boost Its Potential, Says CMD DK Hota

The stake sale would give leverage to BEML’s ability to take decisions faster, Chairman and Managing Director DK Hota says.

BEML has three divisions—earth moving, metro and defence. It also supplies equipment for two stages of the Akash missile and is its key integrator. (Photographer: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg)
BEML has three divisions—earth moving, metro and defence. It also supplies equipment for two stages of the Akash missile and is its key integrator. (Photographer: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg)

The government’s plan to divest part of its stake in heavy equipment maker BEML Ltd. is essential to enhance the capabilities of the state-run entity, its Chairman and Managing Director DK Hota has said.

“The government (by reducing its stake) is trying to make public sector enterprises more efficient,” Hota told BloombergQuint in a conversation. That would also give leverage to BEML’s ability to take decisions faster, he said.

In July 2017, the government gave in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment of up to 26 percent stake in BEML to transfer management control of the Bengaluru-headquartered company to the buyer. It stressed its plan to divest control in public enterprises in the Union Budget 2019.

BEML has three divisions—earth moving, metro and defence. It also supplies equipment for two stages of the Akash missile and is its key integrator.

The BEML disinvestment is being implemented on a “fast-track” basis, Hota said, adding the huge potential and upside to BEML’s growth prospects—including the expected Rs 20,000 crore metro business in the next three to five years, and mining and defence projects—would attract buyers.

He said major developments on the BEML stake sale would come in the “next month or so”.

Watch the full interview here: