Mercator shares gain 60% in a month on restructuring talks

MUMBAI: Shares of Mumbai-based Mercator have gained close to 60% in the past one month on speculation that the company is planning to restructure its businesses.

The company, which is currently engaged in dredging, oil and gas, shipping and coal trading, is likely to announce a restructuring of its businesses wherein the dredging business will be kept in a separate company whereas its other businesses will be moved into a separate entity, a source close to the development in the company said. Shares of Mercator gained 6.4% to close atRs 23.45 on the BSE on Tuesday.

Talk is that Mercator has chalked out a road map to focus on dredging business as it sees incremental revenues coming from the segment at a time when other segments like oil and gas and shipping were witnessing a global slack.

Falling commodity prices and oversupply of new bulk carriers, and weakening international demand due to slowdown in global trade has dented the shipping business of many companies forcing them to diversify. Mercator did not respond to email query by ET. When contact the company’s chairman HK Mittal said he was travelling and will not be able to comment. Mercator is one of the largest listed dredging company in the country.