- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a Fortune Global 500 Company, is likely to be completed by March 2022, its chairman Arun Kumar said on Monday (27).
Speaking at a press conference after the annual general meeting of the company on Monday, Singh said, “The government at many forums and instances has said that it intends to complete the transaction within this financial year, this means by March 2022. So as of now, stated position is March.”
He said this while responding to the question on when the disinvestment of BPCL will be complete.
Last month, Tuhin Kant Pandey, secretary at the department of investment and public asset management under India’s finance ministry said the government plans to complete privatisation of BPCL and national carrier Air India this year.
In the first week of September, Fitch Ratings said there may be delays in BPCL’s privatisation.
“Bidders are conducting due diligence, but uncertainty over the bidder consortiums and process complexity, including valuation, may lead to potential delays,” it said.
Vedanta, Apollo Global, and I Squared Capital responded to the central government’s call for shedding its controlling stake in BPCL. The centre has 52.98 per cent shareholding in the public sector undertaking and the prospective buyer may have to shell upwards of Rs 50,000 crore for the controlling stake at the current valuation, Business Standard reported.
BPCL’s bidder room was opened in April to allow bidders get access to the financial data of the refiner and better assess the valuation.
