ABG Shipyard is currently holding talks with the Federal Government and private equity investors for the building of a shipyard in Nigeria, through a joint venture in which the Indian company will hold a 40 percent stake, a senior official said on Tuesday.

ABG Shipyard will provide technical expertise for the venture and have management control for a period of 20 years, Chief Financial Officer Dhananjay Datar told Reuters.

"The timeline could be three or four years from now. We are the technical partner, so there is unlikely to be a big investment from our side," he said over the telephone.

The investment details were yet to be finalised as the discussions were in initial stages, but a majority of the investments would come from the private equity partners and the Nigerian government, Datar said. The unit will build large offshore and cargo vessels, Datar added.

In February, the company had said it expects fresh orders worth up to 30 billion rupees in calendar 2011, the bulk of it from the booming offshore and defence sectors. It has also received government approval to foray into defence-related contracts.

ABG Shipyard Ltd., the flagship company of ABG Group was incorporated in the year 1985, as Magdalla Shipyard Pvt. Ltd. with the main objects of carrying Shipbuilding and Ship Repair business. In a span of 15 years from the year 1991, the company has achieved the status of the largest private sector shipbuilding yard in India with satisfied customer base all around the world.

The company has state-of- the-art, manufacturing facilities, including a "ship-lift facility" with a lift capacity of 4,500 tons, side transfer facilities, CNC plasma cutting machine, bending rolls, hydraulic press, cold shearing machine, Frame bending machine and steel processing machinery.