BPCL stake sale gets multiple bids; RIL, Aramco skip race

New Delhi: Global and domestic companies submitted expressions of interest (EoI) for the government’s stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) by the Monday deadline, said people with knowledge of the matter.

“Strategic disinvestment of BPCL now moves to the second stage after multiple expressions of interest have been received,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet.

Reliance Industries wasn’t among the bidders, said the people cited above. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), Rosneft, Saudi Aramco have not bid too, they say, adding that Total may team up with Adani Group.


Adani Group declined to comment. News agency PTI reported that UK’s BP and France’s Total had not bid.
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had said in July that the group was moving toward clean energy and aimed to become carbon zero by 2035.

The government had invited bids for the sale of its stake in the country’s second largest oil refining and marketing company, valued at nearly 90,000 crore at its last closing price of 412.7 on the BSE. While the government’s 53 per cent stake would be worth about 48,000 crore at that level, it also expects a control premium.

The strategic sale is a cornerstone of the government’s plan to raise 2.1 lakh crore from disinvestment in FY21.

“Both global as well as Indian firms” are among those that have submitted EoIs, said one of the persons cited above.

“For strategic disinvestment of BPCL, multiple expressions of interest have been received by the transaction advisor,” TK Pandey, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) secretary, said in a tweet. “The transaction will move to the second stage after scrutiny by the transaction advisor.” Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India is the transaction advisor. The government didn’t elaborate on this.

The sale will not include BPCL’s 61.65 per cent stake in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam.

Bidders need to have a net worth of $10 billion and public sector units with government ownership of 51 per cent and more were excluded.

That limited bidders to large companies such as ADNOC, ExxonMobil, BP, France’s Total and Russia’s Rosneft among others. The acquirer will have to make an open offer for another 26 per cent stake from the public.

The divestment process began earlier this year but was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The deadline for bids was extended four times. The government has set an ambitious 2.1 lakh crore disinvestment target for FY21 and strategic sales are expected to fetch a significant portion of that. The government intends to conclude BPCL stake sale before March-end 2021. So far, it has raised 5,695 crore from offers for sale and 10,992 crore from the Bharat Bond Exchange Traded Fund.

The government has said it will exit from non-strategic sectors.

Separately, Dipam signed an agreement with the World Bank for receiving advisory services on asset monetisation. The agreement will support the department in detailing and globally benchmarking policies and processes for asset monetisation to help unlock their value, while channelising investments and growth.