The Indian government has announced plans to sell a 5% stake in the state-owned Cochin Shipyard.
The initial offering will be 2.5%, approximately 6.6 million shares, with an option to sell an additional 2.5%. The base price for the sale is set at INR 1,540 (approximately $18.3) per share, which is nearly an 8% discount from Cochin Shipyard’s closing price on the day of the announcement. The total value of the 5% stake is estimated at around $241 million.
Based on this, Cochin Shipyard’s current market value is approximately $4.82 billion. According to data from the Indian stock exchange, as of June 30, the Indian government holds nearly 73% of Cochin Shipyard’s shares.
Established in 1972, Cochin Shipyard is India’s largest shipbuilding and repair facility. Previously, its largest dock measured 255x43x9 meters, equipped with 300-ton and 150-ton gantry cranes, capable of constructing ships up to 110,000 DWT.
On January 17, Cochin Shipyard held an inauguration ceremony for its new International Ship Repair Facility and a new dry dock, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the event. During the ceremony, Modi stated, “The new International Ship Repair Facility at Cochin Shipyard will transform Cochin into Asia’s largest ship repair center… Today, Cochin boasts India’s largest dry dock, significantly enhancing the shipyard’s capabilities.”
The Cochin Shipyard International Ship Repair Center, at a cost of about Rs. 9.7 billion ($120 million), has a 6,000-ton shiplift, transfer system, six workstations, and about 1,400 meters of berths, and will be able to accommodate the repair of seven 130-meter vessels at the same time. The shipbuilder said the new ship repair facility is a modernization and expansion of the existing ship repair capacity at Cochin Shipyard and is “a step towards transforming Cochin Shipyard into a global ship repair center”, which will increase India’s ship repair capacity by about 25%.
The new dock at Cochin Shipyard is stepped, 310 meters long, 75/60 meters wide, 13 meters deep, with a draft of 9.5 meters, and cost Rs. 18 billion (about $210 million). Cochin Shipyard said the new dock is a flagship project that “reflects India’s engineering prowess”. The new dock will be fitted with a 600-ton Goliath gantry crane, which will greatly enhance the Cochin Shipyard’s construction capabilities. With a design life of 100 years, the new dock will enable India to build large aircraft carriers of up to 70,000 tons displacement.
Currently, India ranks low among the world’s top ten shipbuilding nations, with a market share of less than 1%. However, Prime Minister Modi aims to position India among the top five shipbuilding nations in the future, and Cochin Shipyard aims to double its revenue within four years.
