Vedanta confirms bidding for govt’s stake in BPCL

A globally diversified natural resources company, Vedanta has put in Expression of Interest (EoI) for Bharat Petroleum Company Limited (BPCL).

“Vedanta’s EoI for BPCL is to evaluate potential synergies with our existing Oil & Gas business. The EoI is at a preliminary stage and exploratory in nature,” a company spokesperson said. Monday, November 16 was extended last date for submission of EoI. It may be noted, on that day, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had herself tweeted saying disinvestment of BPCL has moved to the next stage, with the government getting multiple expressions of interests for the Public Sector oil refiner-cum-retailer. Though, it is believed that more than three bids have been received, the government has not made the name public citing confidentiality clauses.

The government intends to divest its entire stake of 52.98 per cent or over 114.91 crore shares in BPCL, which will not include BPCL’s 61.65 per cent stake in Numaligarh Refinery Limited. Accordingly, Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) for inviting EoI was issued on March 7 and May 2 was fixed as date for submission of bid, which was later extended to June 13, July 31, September 30 and then to November 16 respectively.

According to PIM, BPCL is the second-largest oil marketing company with a market share of 21 per cent in the financial year 2018-19 and third-largest refining company in India. It is a publicly listed company with its share price moving around ₹384 during midday trading on Wednesday. Based on this price, the covernment could garner over ₹ 44,000 crore which is nearly 20 per cent of total disinvestment (including disinvestment of government stake in Public Sector Banks and Financial Institutions) target of ₹ 2.10 lakh crore and nearly 40 per cent of disinvestment target (₹ 1.20 lakh crore) minus estimated proceed from sell off in IDBI and LIC.

Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, claims to be one of the world's leading diversified natural resource companies with business operations in India, South Africa, Namibia, and Australia. It is a leading producer of Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, Aluminium & Power. Its website says, Vedanta has been contributing to India's growth story. The company is among top private sector contributors to the exchequer with the highest ever contribution of ₹42,560 crore in FY19. Vedanta's operations contribute 1 per cent to India's GDP as per the IFC report.

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