press trust of india, New Delhi, Feb 4: Mining baron Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group has bid for the most number of 14 coal mines out of 23 on offer in the first round of auctions which also have aggressive bids by Aditya Birla Group, Adani and Naveen Jindal group. Auction was however shunned by foreign players.
Vedanta Group put in as many as 25 bids through several group firms, with some mines getting multiple bids, according to bid data available after close of technical bids Tuesday. Aditya Birla Group put in 15 bids for 8 blocks while Naveen Jindal-led JSPL, which was the worst hit by the cancellations of coal block allocations by the Supreme Court, put in 13 bids for 6 blocks. Adani bid for six.
The Gare Palma IV/7 block in Chhattisgarh with extractable reserves of 56.62million tonnes (MT) was the most sought-after block attracting as many as 16 bids from firms like Balco, Hindalco, JSPL, Monnet Ispat, Sesa Sterlite and Sarda Energy & Mineral. Parbatpur Central in Jharkhand attracted just one bid from JSW Steel. While no foreign player bid for the 23 mines that were in production before the Supreme Court cancelled their allocation, other domestic players in the fray include GMR, GVK, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group and Lanco. Industry estimates suggest the 23 blocks may fetch tens of thousands of crores.
