Mumbai

The debt-ridden ABG Shipyard is at an advanced stage of negotiations with interested parties for a strategic investment into the company, which will see the management divesting its majority control.

The deal is expected to be announced by March-end.

“We are in talks with parties, which include domestic players as well a consortium where a domestic company has tied up with an international player. We hope to announce the deal by the end of March,” Syed Abdi, MD and CEO, ABG Shipyard, told reporters at the ongoing Make in India Week here.

Asked about German company Privinvest Holdings, which was reported to be among the interested parties, Abdi merely said “the company continues to be in talks with it”.

Abdi also said the company requires up to Rs 600 crore of working capital support and is speaking to lenders for the same.

It has an order book of USD 2 billion and will bid for naval and defence contracts of over USD 1 billion in the near future.

“We have bid for USD 1 billion worth defence and naval orders which includes landing platform docks and anti-submarine warfare,” he added.

In March 2014, ABG Shipyard had got approval on a corporate debt restructuring package of Rs 11,500 crore, but has been struggling to get out of it ever since.

The company currently has two facilities in Surat and Dahej.

Many of its peers have shifted focus to concentrate on the upcoming defence sector in order to survive and some like Pipavav Defence have also managed to get strategic investors like the ADAG Group. PTI