New Delhi : The Cabinet on Wednesday approved sale of government’s stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to India’s largest oil producer ONGC for Rs 30,000 crore, a top government source said.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will buy government’s 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL but will not have to make an open offer as the government’s holding is being transferred to another state-run firm and the ownership isn’t changing. HPCL will become a subsidiary of ONGC and will remain a listed company post the acquisition, the source said, reports PTI.
On the other hand, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Rajya Sabha that there is no proposal at present from ONGC to buy stake in other public sector oil marketing companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Indian Oil Corp Ltd, Pradhan said. Selling its 51.1 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum to ONGC would help the government meet about 38 per cent of its disinvestment target of Rs 725 billion for the financial year 2017-18 (April-March), reports Cognecis.
State-owned oil companies had started looking at possibilities of mergers and acquisitions among themselves after the government said earlier this year that it would look at creating integrated public sector energy majors. The Union Cabinet is also likely to take up the ONGC-HPCL deal in its meeting later today and may spell out a final structure for the same, media reports said.
