The core group of secretaries on divestment is meeting Thursday to finalise the share-purchase agreements and names of shareholders for Balmer Lawrie.

It will also clear the draft guidelines for employee buy-outs. It has decided to sell the multi-business company as a single entity.

The divestment ministry has decided to go ahead with the sale of the entire company at one go, instead of de-merging its eight different units as suggested by the finance ministry, a senior government official said.

Expressions of interest have been called for the entire company and prospective bidders have completed due diligence.

At one stage, the divestment ministry had toyed with the idea of demerging the company as in the case of the ITDC hotel properties.

The suggestion had been made keeping in mind the diverse business interests of Balmer Lawrie, ranging from lubricants to manufacturing plastic drums to selling railway and airline tickets, but the ministry decided against it as it considered a single entity simpler to sell.

The government has received expressions of interest from 16 prospective bidders, including Aban Lloyd, Fedder Lloyd, Maharashtra Seamless and the Kolkata-based financial re-engineering company Srei Capital Markets Ltd for the 61.8 per cent equity in Balmer Lawrie on sale.

The core group will formalise the employee buy-out guidelines before they are taken up by the cabinet committee on divestment, expected to be held after the Budget Session of Parliament, the official said.

In a bid to encourage public sector employees to take management control of their companies, the government is planning to offer a preference them if their bid is within 10 per cent of the highest bid.

They would have the first option of picking up the public sector unit if they match the highest bid.

In addition, the employees would be exempted from the turnover criterion, if applicable, but would have to meet the minimum net worth criteria, for which they would be allowed to team up with a bank, venture capitalist or a financial institution.

The employees would, however, not be permitted to team up with other companies and would have to shell out at least 10 per cent of the financial bid from their resources.