The Mercator group of companies has diversified business interests in Coal, Oil & Gas, Commodity Transportation, and Dredging.

It also suffered greatly due it to its receivables stuck in litigation with several Government owned companies namely Dredging Corporation of India and ONGC.

Long legal battles along with severe downturn and bank's inability to roll over its due debts led it to the company's decline with eventual it being taken to NCLT for liquidation.

Its founder and Chairman Mr Harish Kumar Mittal won the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award from EY in 2007.

[citation needed] Since its maiden public issue in 1993, it has grown in terms of financial parameters like turnover, profits, tonnage and market capitalization.

During April 2005, the Company completed its first international offering of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds aggregating US$60 mn.

The rig received ahead of its schedule; was deployed immediately upon delivery in March 2009; for a period of three years on firm bare boat charter.

Mercator commenced its Wet Bulk business in 1998 by acquiring the vessel M. T. Richa (9,750 DWT) and entered into crude oil transportation in 2003.

MLS presently controls an operating fleet of 18 vessels including a VLOC, which is the largest bulk carrier in India and Singapore.

Mercator first forayed into the Oil & Gas business in 2004, when it chartered a Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) Unit to BG Group.

Since then, the oil & gas division has seen a steady growth with the most recent achievement being the Sagar Samrat Conversion COMPANY Project for ONGC.

In 2010, Mercator won a contract for Charter of a Floating Production Unit (FPU), which is a combination of a MOPU and an FSO, from Afren Plc., a UK listed Company, with worldwide operations in oil exploration.

The detailed engineering design is by GL Noble Denton, UAE, for Marine Part and Samsung Heavy Industries India Pvt.