The meeting of Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) to decide on strategic partners for Hindustan Teleprinters and CMC Ltd was postponed for the second time this week till Friday. Official sources said that the meeting will now be held on October 5. They did not give any reasons for postponement.
Earlier the CCD meeting scheduled for October 1 had been postponed to October 3, in face of an intensified debate on whether or not to accept the sole bid of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for CMC Ltd, at one third below the market price of Rs 300 a share. The price bids for the two state-owned companies were received last month.
The Tata group company is understood to have made a bid offer of about Rs 150 crore for acquiring over 50 per cent of the government`s equity in CMC Ltd.
If accepted, TCS will also have to make an open offer for floating shares of CMC after acquiring government`s equity, as per Sebi regulation.
Neither disinvestment minister Arun Shourie nor his secretary Pradeep Baijal could be contacted for comments. The CCD was also scheduled to asesss price bids for Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd (HTL).

Hindustan Futuristic and Uniword Telecom Ltd are in race for acquiring 74 per cent stake in HTL.
Bureau Report