The Hindu Business Line : Ennore Port may offer stake to FIs

New Delhi/Chennai, July 20 Ennore Port Ltd (EPL), the only corporatised port under the Centre’s jurisdiction, is likely to raise funds by offering a small equity stake — perhaps 10 per cent — to institutions such as LIC and GIC.

“The board is favourably considering a move to raise funds by offering 10 per cent stake to institutions such as LIC and GIC,” said Ministry sources. This was discussed in the last board meeting of the port.

However, the Ennore Port Chairman, Mr S. Velumani, was non-committal. “We are working on various options to raise funds for our projects. We have not finalised them yet,” he said.

The proceeds of the funds will be used to part-finance a dredging project. Ennore Port had an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore on March 31, 2008. It registered a net profit of Rs 35 crore on revenues of Rs 128 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2008. For the 2006-07 fiscal, it posted a net profit of Rs 31 crore with revenues of Rs 101 crore.

In 2008-09, the port handled 11.5 million tonne (mt) of traffic, which was marginally lower than the 11.56 mt handled in the previous fiscal. Bulk of the traffic handled was thermal coal (97.08 lakh tonne), followed by iron ore (11 lakh tonne) and petroleum products (3.6 lakh tonne).

In October 2008, EPL entered into an MoU with Nissan to begin work on a Rs 110-crore facelift for handling export of cars. The port plans to be ready with a quarter-kilometre-long ‘common user terminal’ where car-ferrying ships can anchor. The space abutting the waterfront will be enough to park 5,000 cars.

The Economic Survey 2008-09 had suggested that the port trusts should be converted into public-listed companies (minus the excess land) with the general public holding at least 49 per cent of the shares. For this to happen, ports have to be corporatised first.