London-based shipowner Foresight Group remains committed in its bid to take over Shipping Corp of India (SCI) — despite consortium partner Exmar pulling out in October.

Foresight's executive chairman Ravi Mehrotra told TradeWinds: "The official statement we have from Exmar is that they are putting the project 'on hold' from their side due to other business priorities.

"As regards the way forward for Foresight, our board of directors will consider the strategies at the next board meeting due in December, after reviewing the terms of the RFP [request for proposal] which is still awaited to be released by the SCI team," he added.