Gati sells 40% stake in shipping arm for Rs 8cr

Gati Ltd, a city-based express distribution and supply chain solutions provider, has sold 40 per cent of its stake in Gati Ship to Riba Constructions for Rs 8 crore, a senior official said. Sanjeev Kumar Jain, Director - Finance of Gati said the group has plans to divest further in the shipping division and eventually holding minority stake. "The company has been valued at RsA 20 crore and Riba has acquired 40 per cent state for RsA 8 crore. We would like to further divest stake. We expect it to finish by June end," Jain said. He said they are in discussions with others besides Riba for stake sale. "As you aware the shipping division is dragging the group's financials down and we want to give better value to our share holders", he said on reasons for the move.

Gati Ship recently signed an MoU with International Shipping and Logistics FZE, Dubai, a wholly owned subsidiary of TM International Logistics Limited ( A Tata Steel subsidiary ) and will be launching a joint container service operating from Gujarat to Kerala. The service is slated to start by the end of this month. Gati Ship sufferedA RsA 12 crore loss before tax for the period of nine months ended March 31, 2013. It incurred RsA 25 crore loss during the last fiscal. Meanwhile, Gati said its consolidated revenues for the third quarter ended March 31 rose by 23 per cent to RsA 317 crore as against RsA 257 Cr for the quarter ended March 2012. Consolidated Profit after tax for the quarter under discussion stood at RsA 7.5 crore as against loss of RsA 3.5 crore during the same period of previous fiscal.