Dredging Corporation stock surges 9.99% after govt decides to offload its entire stake in the firm

The Dredging Corporation of India stock surged in early trade today after the Cabinet on Thursday cleared strategic sale of government stake in Dredging Corporation to consortium of four ports. The government currently holds 73.44 per cent in Dredging Corporation of India Ltd (DCIL). The Dredging Corp stock rose up to 9.98% or 34.8 points to 383.15 level on the BSE. 

The micro cap stock has been gaining during the last two days and risen 15.76% during the same period.

It opened with a gain of 9.99% at 383.15 in trade today against its previous close of 348.35 level on BSE.

It has lost 46.18% during the last one year and fallen 55.10% since the beginning of this year.

"CCEA has given in principle approval for strategic disinvestment of 100 per cent Government of India's share in DCIL to consortium of 4 ports, namely Vishakhapatnam Port Trust, Paradeep Port Trust, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust," an official tweet said.

The approval will further facilitate the linkage of dredging activities with the ports, keeping in view the role of the DCIL in expansion of dredging activity in the country as well as potential diversification of ports into third party dredging, the tweet said after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The co-sharing of facilities between the company as well as ports shall lead to savings for ports. This would further provide opportunities for larger investment in DCIL as integration with ports shall help in effective vertical linkage in the value chain," the tweet added.

The government has budgeted to raise Rs 80,000 crore from PSU disinvestment. So far this fiscal, the government has mopped up over Rs 15,000 crore from PSU stake sale.

Dredging Corporation is engaged in dredging. The company is engaged in maintenance dredging, capital dredging, beach nourishment, land reclamation, shallow water dredging, project management consultancy and marine construction. It owns a fleet consisting of approximately three cutter suction dredgers and over 10 trailer suction dredgers.