Gujarat NRE Coke buys out SteelRX Corporation
(The Economic Times, Ahmedabad, July 20, 2005)

Anurag Saraf Sells 100 per cent Stake For Undisclosed Sum

The Gujarat NRE Coke group, promoted by Arun Kumar Jagatramka, has acquired a 100% stake in India�s second largest steel online portal, SteelRX Corporation, from its previous promoter Anurag Saraf for an undisclosed amount.

Apart from steel and metals, which are already traded on the portal, www.steelrx.com, trading in commodities like coal and coke are expected to start soon, sources told ET. Anurag Saraf said that the deal has been closed. But Mr Jagatramka said that the process of acquisition is still on. He declined to reveal the size of the deal, and said that the group is yet to decide which entity will subscribe to SteelRX� shares.

Jagatramka, however, added that once the portal becomes a part of the group, online trading in coal and coke will be started. Mr Jagatramka has already been named as the chairman of the corporation since July 15.

With the acquisition, the company is now foraying into online commodities trading. The company has so far been into manufacturing of coke which is an essential ingredient in steel making and recently, as part of backward integration, started coal mining.

SteelRX Corporation is a leading neutral e-commerce service provider for the steel industry in India since April 2000. The company recorded a 100 per cent jump in its volumes and closed the year at about Rs 400 crore of steel auctions.

Gujarat NRE Coke, the Rs 600-crore parent company of the group, is the largest non-captive, low-ash coke manufacturer in India with an exports turnover of about Rs 75 crore. The company recently acquired two coal mines in Australia. In India, the company is setting up a unit in Gujarat and Karnataka. Bharat NRE Coke Limited, one of the subsidiaries of Gujarat NRE Coke, is setting up the third unit at Dharwad, Karnataka with a capacity of 7.24 lakh TPA, taking the cumulative coke capacity of the group to 1.4 million TPA.