Steel Authority of India (SAIL) shares were trading in the green and 1% higher on 4 January after the government dropped the plan to privatise the firm’s Salem plant.

The government on 3 January announced that it had received multiple Expressions of Interest (EoIs) and bidders were shortlisted. However, due to the lack of interest from the shortlisted bidders to proceed further with the transaction, the government decided to terminate the plan.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management said, “The government, along with the approval of alternative mechanisms, has decided to annul the current EoI, thereby terminating the present transaction.”

In February 2019, the government of India decided to push its strategic disinvestment plan by selling a 100% stake in three of the company’s special steel manufacturing plants, including the Salem Steel and Alloy Steel Plant.

Earlier, the government scrapped its strategic plan for the sale of the company’s Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Plant in Karnataka due to the lack of sufficient bidder interest.

The decision for the sale came as all three units of the company have been making significant losses. The government had set a target of Rs 65,000 crore from divestment in 2022-23, of which it has already raised Rs 24,544 crore.

At 11:23 pm, the shares of SAIL shed all their early gains and were trading 0.29% lower at Rs 118.75 on NSE.