MOSCOW (MRC) -- India plans to sell a 10% stake in Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s largest state-run refiner, as the government accelerates a federal asset-sale plan, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The sale of up to 242.8 million shares may raise about 95.9 billion rupees (USD1.45 billion), based on the closing price of Indian Oil’s stock in Mumbai on Friday.
The government will announce on Saturday the benchmark price at which the shares will be sold through the nation’s main exchanges on Aug. 24, the company said in an exchange filing.
The collapse in crude oil prices and scrapping of government control over pricing of automotive fuel have helped refiners including Indian Oil to return to profit in the June quarter. That may lure investors to the share sale and allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mobilize funds to spend on various welfare programs in Asia’s third-largest economy.
"It’s a great time to do the sale," Aradhana Johri, secretary for disinvestment at the Finance Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on Friday about the Indian Oil stake sale. "There is excellent appetite for the stock."
As MRC wrote previously, Indian Oil Corporation's Rs 34,555-crore 15 million tonnes per annum Paradip Refinery was commissioned in phases from March 2015 onwards. IOC is conducting feasibility studies to set up a petrochemical complex at Paradip in Odisha for Rs 20,000 crore. The petrochemical complex would be built in the vicinity of the company’s 15-mln tpa greenfield refinery at Paradip. The petrochemical complex would be in addition to the already announced Rs 3,150-crore polypropylene project at the same location, the foundation stone for which was laid by MOS for petroleum and natural gas.
Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
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