New Delhi, May 18 :    New Delhi, May 18:  India's largest petrochemical company Reliance Industries today won a keenly contested race for acquiring 26 per cent government stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL), quoting a price of Rs 1490.84 crore. Reliance Industries bid Rs 231 per share for over 6.45 crore equity shares (26 per cent) to win India's second largest petrochemical company, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) here. The other two companies in fray-Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Nirma-bid lower than the Rs 845.5 crore (Rs 131 per share) reserve price fixed by IPCL disinvestment advisor Warburg. State-run refiner IOC put Rs 826 crore at Rs 128 per share while detergent maker Nirma bid Rs 711 crore at Rs 110 per share, Shourie said. With the acquisition of 26 per cent government holding in IPCL, Reliance now joins the league of top global petrochemical firms like Dow Chemicals and BP Amoco and stands to command 80 per cent of the Rs 30,000-crore petrochemicals business in the country. Coming as it does after Reliance Industries' failure to acquire VSNL and IBP, acquisition of India's second largest petrochemical company would provide a major fillip to RIL's corporate image and core business of petrochemicals. IPCL is one of the leading integrated petrochemical players in India that manufactures petrochemical products (polymers, fibre and fibre intermediates and chemicals) using hydrocarbon feed stocks naphtha and natural gas. The polymer group of products accounts for 66 per cent of IPCL's business. Fibre and fibre intermediates contribute 12 per cent and chemicals account for 22 per cent. The combined production of major merchant products from the three IPCL complexes at Vadodara, Nagothane and Gandhar was 13.71 lakh tonnes in 2001-02 as against 11.76 lakh tonnes achieved in the previous year, registering an overall growth of 17 per cent. IPCL, which had reserves and surplus of Rs 2946.1 crore as on March 31, 2001, posted a net profit of Rs 56 crore on sales of Rs 3370.9 crore during the first nine months of 2001-02. The government, which presently has 59.95 per cent equity in IPCL, has decided to offload 51 per cent stake in two phases. It would transfer management control to Reliance for 26 per cent stake initially and the new partner would have the right of refusal over the remaining 25 per cent equity. Regarding GE Plastics India Limited where IPCL held a 50 per cent stake, the CCD decided to sell off IPCL's share to GE itself. 'IPCL will earn Rs 23.63 crore from the sale of this 50 per cent stake to GE and another Rs 25.40 crore from property sale to GE. Thus the total earning for IPCL will be Rs 49.03 crore,' disinvestment secretary Pradip Baijal said. In another decision regarding National Fertiliser, it was decided to call for the bids after the settlement of urea price policy. IOC unfazed Indian Oil today put up a brave front on losing IPCL to Reliance Industries saying the temporary set-back would not affect its plans to enter petrochemicals business. Senior IOC officials said the company has detailed plans to foray into petrochemicals business, including construction of a Rs 4,200-crore petrochem complex at Panipat and acquisition of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.