Govt invites bids for sale of its 52.98% Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd stake, Public sector companies exempted

The government Saturday invited bids for the sale of its entire its 52.98% stake in India's second-biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).

But it kept public sector companies out of the bidding. The process, however, could be completed only in the next financial year, leaving the centre drastically short of the disinvestment target this year.

Against the revised divestment target of Rs 65,000 crore for 2019-20, the centre has so far garnered only a little above Rs 18,000 crore. With only 24 days left for the financial year to end, it is highly unlikely that the disinvestment could fetch any more revenues.

"The Government of India is proposing strategic disinvestment of its entire shareholding in BPCL comprising of 114.91 crore equity shares, which constitutes 52.98% of BPCL's equity share capital along with transfer of management control to a strategic buyer except for BPCL's equity shareholding of 61.65% in Numaligarh Refinery Limited," the bid document by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), said.

Numaligarh will be sold to a state-owned oil and gas firm.

Expressions of interest for the strategic sale of BPCL have been invited by May 2.

Any private company having a net worth of $10 billion is eligible for bidding. A consortium of four or less firms will be allowed to bid.

According to bid details, BPCL will give buyers ready access to 14% of India's oil refining capacity and about one-fourth of the fuel market share in the world's fastest-growing energy market.

BPCL has a market capitalisation of about Rs 87,388 crore and the government stake at current prices is worth about Rs 46,000 crore.

Privatisation of BPCL is essential for meeting the record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target set from disinvestment proceeds in the Budget for 2020-21.

BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh) and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15% of India's total refining capacity of 249.4 million tonnes.

BPCL also owns over 15,000 petrol pumps in the country.