GE Shipping, Great Offshore Ltd demerger not to take place

New Delhi, Aug 3 (UNI) Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd (GE Shipping) today said the demerger of the offshore services business into a separate company -- Great Offshore Ltd -- which was earlier approved by the Bombay High Court, will now not take place.

At a meeting held on August 2, 2006, the Board of Directors, after reviewing the status of various approvals from contracting counter parties to material contracts received before the High Court order, unanimously decided that the demerger will not come through, as all the conditions for arriving at the effective date of the scheme were not fulfilled within the stipulated period of six months, from the date of the court order sanctioning the scheme.

Therefore, the company said that in terms of Clause 35 of the scheme, the demerger had automatically lapsed, a company statement said.

''On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to put on record the immense support and concurrence received from all the contracting counter parties both in the Government as well as in the Private sector, especially ONGC which has been of immense value to us and highly supportive to the business restructuring,''GE Shipping Executive Chairman K M Sheth said.

Thereafter, in the long term interest of the shareholders, the company will examine new possibilities in due course, for restructuring its business in a manner which will achieve maximisation of value accretion to the shareholders, and if necessary, approach them, the statement added.

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