The central government has approved the sale of a 100 percent stake in Central Electronics Ltd (CEL), a state-owned engineering company, to Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd for Rs 210 crore, the Ministry of Finance announced on November 29.

The "winning bid of Rs 210,00,60000" was placed by Nandal Finance and Leasing Pvt Ltd, the government said. The second-highest bid of Rs 190 crore was made by JPM Industries Ltd.

The sale of 100 percent equity shareholding in CEL to Nandal Finance was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)-empowered Alternative Mechanism, which comprises Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, and Jitendra Singh, a press release stated.

The winning bid of Nandal Finance was above the reserve price of Rs 194 crore fixed for the strategic sale.

"The entire disinvestment process has been carried out in a transparent manner, with due regard to confidentiality of the bidders, through multi-layered decision making involving Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CDG) and the empowered Alternative Mechanism (AM) at the apex Ministerial level. Transaction Adviser, Legal Adviser, Asset Valuer as professionals in their respective fields, have supported the entire process," the Finance Ministry said.

The government further said that it expects the transaction to be completed during the financial year 2021-22.Notably, the process for disinvestment of CEL commenced in October 2016. However, no financial bids were received in the initial attempt to sell the PSU. A renewed disinvestment process was initiated in February last year.