New Delhi: The government today ruled out any talks on divesting stake from National Aluminium Company (NALCO) as it will soon become a Navratna company.

Expressing happiness at the state-run aluminium giant's increasing profits, Mines Minister Sis Ram Ola asserted that NALCO would continue to remain as a PSU and hoped that it would continue to achieve increasing profits and pay richer dividends to the government, according to an official release.

NALCO today announced an interim dividend of 45 per cent on a paid-up capital of Rs 644.31 crore, amounting to Rs 289.94 crore for the fiscal 2007-08.

The PSU's CMD C R Pradhan paid the dividend cheque for Rs 252.67 crore on 87.15 per cent shares held by government to Ola here in the presence of J P Singh, Ministry Secretary.

The balance amount of Rs 37.27 crore has been disbursed to other shareholders of the company like banks, financial institutions and individual shareholders, according to the release.
Source : PTI