Image Credit source: BPCL
The company said, the government, vide a letter dated June 3, 2022, has canceled the tender issued for the sale of its entire 53 percent stake in the company.
Public Sector Company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has ceased all activities related to the disinvestment of the company. The privatization of BPCL by the government at present (BPCL Privatisation) This decision has been taken after leaving the scheme. The company told the stock exchange that the government has canceled the tender issued for selling its entire 53 percent stake in the company through a letter dated June 3, 2022. BPCL said, in such a situation, all activities related to disinvestment including data rooms are being closed. The government withdrew the expression of interest (EOI) for the company after two out of three bidders pulled back.
BPCL had in April last year opened a virtual data room, which contained most of the company’s financial information, to the eligible bidders who had signed the Confidentiality Undertaking. A data room containing commercially sensitive information of the company was also opened to the bidders after the signing of an additional confidentiality agreement.
These companies showed interest
Industrialist Anil Agarwal’s mining giant Vedanta Group and Apollo Global and I Squared Capital had expressed interest in buying the government’s 53 per cent stake in BPCL. However, both the entities were unable to attract global investors and withdrew from the bid amid declining interest in fossil fuels like petrol and diesel.
BPCL is India’s second largest oil marketing company after Indian Oil, and with refineries in Mumbai, Kochi and Madhya Pradesh, it has the third largest refining capacity after Reliance and IndianOil.
BPCL is a public sector fuel retailer company, which has up to 90 percent intervention in the market of petrol and diesel. This company sells petrol and diesel at below cost prices. Because of this, many big companies such as Reliance-BP, Rosneft’s company Nayara and Shell have to sell their oil at a loss. If these companies take the price of oil at the cost price, then there is a fear of getting them out of the market.
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