Calcutta, Jan. 9 (PTI): The total merger process of Indian Oil Corporation and IBP & Co Ltd is not likely to be completed within June, even though the swap ratio of the proposed merger had been fixed.

A senior IBP official said the merger scheme, which was already in place, would now be referred to the ministry for clearance.

?As things stand now, it seems impossible that the process would be completed before June 2005,? the official said.

After the merger, IOC would maintain the IBP division by retaining the brand name, which has a formidable retail presence.

Asked how IBP as a division of IOC would benefit from the merger, the official chose to reserve his comments. He only said marketing efforts would be synchronised to gain a substantial share in petro-products retailing, which was important against the backdrop of intense competition thrown up by foreign and domestic private players.

The swap ratio fixed for the merger was 125 shares of IOC for 100 of IBP.

Talking about the operational and financial performance of IBP at the end of December, the official said although retailing margins were better in the third quarter compared with the first two, cumulative losses of around Rs 69 crore would not be wiped out.

Meanwhile, IBP had also made a representation before the petroleum ministry for alteration of duties to reduce the losses in view of non-revisioning of prices of petro products.

Post-merger, the government?s shareholding in IOC would fall by 1.91 per cent to 80.12 per cent as a result of the new equity offered to IBP shareholders.

Earlier, IOC had acquired 53.58 per cent in IBP, institutional investors 12.21 per cent and public 34.21 per cent.