Sesa Goa acquires BASL for Rs220 crore

Vedanta Group firm Sesa Goa today said it has acquired the assets of the upcoming steel plant of Bellary Steel and Alloys Limited (BASL), put on the block by a consortium of lenders led by IFCI, for Rs220 crore.

"We have been looking at setting up value addition facilities, as desired by the state government (Karnataka) and this acquisition provides us with an excellent opportunity to leap frog in that direction," Sesa Goa managing director P K Mukherjee said in a statement.

The statement said the assets of the acquired company had been transferred on ''as is where is'' basis to Sesa Goa effective today. The statement added Sesa Goa was engaged in conducting a detailed assessment for determination of the best way forward for commissioning the steel plant at the earliest.

The Karnataka-based BASL had taken up establishment of an integrated 0.5MTPA capacity steel plant with provision of expanding capacity to 2MTPA at Bellary on 700 acres of freehold land.

However, BASL failed to complete the project and ran into debt, following which it was put on the block by IFCI at the instance of the lenders consortium.

The sale however, had its own share of drama with a legal battle being fought by Sesa Goa against the process adopted by IFCI in December, which saw JSW Steel being declared the winner with its Rs210 crore bid for the acquisition of the company.