Calcutta, Dec 20: Jessop & Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharat Bhari Udyog Nigam Ltd, which had to cancel the auction of its headquarters on Wednesday because of poor response, is likely to either go in for open tendering or finalise a deal through negotiations with interested parties, as reported briefly on Saturday.

Company sources said that within the next six weeks the board will decide on a course of action.

"We are trying to find a solution as the auction process has failed to deliver the goods. The company may now hold conversations with individual corporates interested in the building or it can float an open tender... These are two processes open to us," sources said.

Under no circumstances is the company backing out of its decision to sell the property, a company official said. "We will sell off the building and there is no doubt about it, at least till now, because it is a part of the revival plan and it has been accepted both by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction and the Union cabinet," he said.

The official added that a public sector power utility company and a multinational US banking company were interested in the building. However, they did not bid in the auction.

As apprehended by a section of the employees of Jessop, the auction did not yield the expected results with the sole bidder, Allahabad Bank, quoting only Rs 8 crore. The Jessop top brass expected to mop up Rs 25 crore through the auction.

"We mentioned earlier that if the auction process does not fetch the required amount, then we will call it off without giving any reasons and sadly enough it happened. There is no reason to sell the building without getting a remunerative price. Still, we have other processes and we will find a way out," an employee said.

However, real estate agents were absent at the auction. "According to the terms of the auction, the highest bidder was supposed to deposit Rs 5 crore as earnest money with the fall of the hammer. May be this was a too big an amount for them and they preferred to avoid the auction," the company official explained.

With Jessop failing to sell off its building in the very first attempt, industry observers apprehend that the company may not be able to earn the Rs 37 crore earmarked in its revival plan.

"In the Rs 96-crore revival plan, the company must earn Rs 37 crore from selling its headquarters and some land in Durgapur. From its headquarters in city it wants to get a minimum amount of Rs 25 crore, but as things stand now, it will be hard to earn that money," an industry-watcher said.

However, the company official clarified that in the revival plan it was noted that government will put in the extra amount if there is a shortfall. "It has been clearly noted in the revival package that if there is any shortfall in funds, the Union government will be chipping in that extra amount," he said.