ONGC repays a third of loan taken to buy HPCL

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will not sell its stake in IOC and GAIL in the near future as it has used internal resources to repay close to a third of the Rs 24,881 crore loan it had taken to buy Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

ONGC had in January received government approval to sell its 13.77% stake in IOC and 4.86% state in gas utility GAIL India to help fund the Rs 36,915 crore acquisition of HPCL.

“IOC shares were trading at around Rs 195 in January and it is now at Rs 159 (Friday’s closing). It doesn’t make sense to sell the shares at such a big loss,” a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.