In the wake of renewed threats from the unions to stall the proposed public offering of shares, the government is reworking its strategy to go ahead with the divestment of National Aluminium Company.
As part of the new strategy the Department of Divestment may hold negotiations with the unions and Nalco employees.
According to highly placed sources, unions have warned authorities not to allow the auditors, who have been appointed to finalise the accounts as per US GAAP standards for its proposed overseas offering, saying that plant operations may get affected if the government allowed the auditors to enter.
The DoD is also considering de-linking of strategic sale from the public offer both in domestic and overseas market.
Last year also, the divestment process was halted after a team comprising of senior officials of A V Birla Group company Hindalco were roughed up by the unions, when they had gone for carrying out due diligence of the plant.
Nalco's top management was not available for comments but when contacted the officials of the Department of Divestment confirmed that DoD had started reworking the strategy following a communication from the company that they feared a backlash from the unions.
DoD officials, however, refused to give details of the strategy to take the divestment process in Nalco forward.
The company has intimated the ministry over threats to the auditors who have been engaged by the government to finalise the accounts for the international ADR offering.
Last week several unions including AITUC, CITU, HMS and BJP affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh had threatened to launch protest on July 18 against the moves to offload equity in the aluminium major through public offer route.
The new strategy to deal with the situation is expected to be finalised after the new divestment secretary Dhirendra Singh takes stock of the situation.
The government has decided to offer as much as 60 per cent stake in Nalco through a three stage process involving public offer in both domestic and international markets alongside a strategic sale.
While close to 30 per cent was to be offered to prospective bidders the remaining was to be offered to the public.
The government currently holds close to 87 per cent stake in the aluminium major, which ranks as the biggest domestic producer. ABN Amro-Rotschild along with ICICI Securities-Enam Financials-J P Morgan have been mandated as global advisors cum coordinators for the deal.