Government is expected to invite initial bids for sale of majority stake in Manganese Ore India by next week.

The move follows a meeting of inter-ministerial group on divestment recently which approved a plan to call expression of interest by March 9-10, official sources said.

The meeting also set a time frame of five months to wrap up the process of privatisation of the company.

Centre currently owns 82 per cent stake in the manganese major while Mahrashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments hold the remaining stake. KPMG have been mandated to act as global advisors.

The Government proposes to dilute its stake to 26 per cent through a strategic sale while reserving 4.57 per cent for employees.

Incidentally, the Madhya Pradesh Government has also approached the Centre seeking a tag along right to divest its 8.81 per cent stake in the company.

The meeting also deliberated on the issue of employees bid for acquiring stake in the company but did not arrive at a decision on the matter.

Employees had earlier approached the Centre seeking to buy out its equity at reserve price. However, the issue was held up on whether the Government could permit such a takeover given the preference for open competitive bidding.

Incidentally the meeting did not discuss the issue of fixing a figure for net worth and turnover for prospective bidders leaving the matter to be decided in consultation with advisors.

It is also reported to have discussed the issue of whether the company would fall within the purview of natural asset companies, guidelines for which are in the process of being finalised by Divestment Ministry and Finance Ministry.

MOIL is involved in mining of manganese ore and production of grades of manganese dioxide from various mines in Madhya Pradesh and Mahrashtra.

It has a staff strength of 7500 employees and equity base of Rs 15 crore. The company posted a net profit of Rs 102 crore (Rs 1.02 billion) in 2000-01.