Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), one of the country’s largest integrated steel manufacturers, emerged as the preferred bidder for three out of the five coal blocks that were offered for sale in the fourth tranche of auctions.
The company had won Utkal B1 and B2 blocks on the opening day and Gare Palma IV/6 block on the final day of auction. However, there was striking contrast seen in sale of these blocks.
The Utkal blocks were acquired with relative ease at a final price offer of 15.25%. These are two separate blocks spread across Odisha’s Angul district with combined geological reserves of 347 million tonnes (mnt), but the Ministry of Coal had considered their sale against a single bid.
On the other hand, sale of Gare Palma IV/6 block saw stiff competition from 8 bidders that were in contention. The block had been under the spotlight for possessing necessary statutory permissions/approvals required to begin the mining operations. Therefore, it had attracted the interest of various end-user firms having captive coal requirement.
In the end, JSPL came out on top by quoting final price offer of 85.25%, which was 60.5% higher than the floor price.
Auction round-up
The fourth tranche of auction received tepid response in terms of participation. Notably, a total of 20 bids made it to the financial round compared to 40 that were recorded in the third tranche.
In terms of sale of the remaining blocks in this tranche, Chinora was sold at a bid price of 53%, primarily due to the lesser geological reserves. Rabodih block received a nominal bid price of 6% from Twenty First Century Mining which emerged victorious for the second time in these auctions.
A total of five coal blocks were sold at an average bid price of 39.88% against floor price of 12.19%. The bids were comparatively low compared to the previous tranche which had recorded an average final price of 92%.
Winner’s List in Fourth Tranche
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