The Centre on Monday said it had received a number of bids for state-owned refiner BPCL but indications are that Reliance Industries has not made any offer and neither have giants such as Saudi Aramco, Russia’s Rosneft, BP or Total.
Sources said the government has received about three to four bids, including private equity funds and pension funds.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, which has ambitions for the Indian market, is a potential bidder but it was not immediately known if it has put in an expression of interest.
Mining billionaire Anil Agarwal is another potential bidder given his interest in the oil and gas business following the $8.67-billion acquisition of Cairn India.
“Strategic disinvestment of BPCL progresses: Now moves to the second stage after multiple expressions of interest have been received,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet.
“The transaction adviser has received multiple expressions of interest. The transaction will move to the second stage after scrutiny by the adviser,” said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary in the department of investment and public asset management.
The government plans to sell its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL and has extended the deadline four times.
The number of bids received are sufficient and the government will not extend the deadline any more.
At Friday’s closing price of Rs 412.70 on the BSE, the government’s 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL is worth Rs 47,430 crore. Also, the acquirer would have to make an open offer to buy another 26 per cent stake from the public, which would cost Rs 23,276 crore.
Sources said BPCL annually makes a profit of about Rs 8,000 crore and at this pace it would take 8-9 years for the investor to recover the bid amount of over Rs 70,000 crore.
The acquisition makes sense for companies which can double profit by growing the business as well as through operational efficiencies and synergies with existing business in half that timeframe.
After the EoIs, the government will open a data center for the interested bidders to do due diligence of the books of the company and its operations after which financial bids will be called.