ONGC May Sell Some IOC, GAIL Shares to Fund HPCL Acquisition
ONGC may sell some of its stake in Indian Oil and GAIL to fund the HPCL buyout.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. is likely to sell some of its stake in Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. to institutional investors like Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to part-fund its over Rs 34,000-crore acquisition of refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
ONGC holds 13.77 percent stake in India’s biggest refiner IOC, which at today’s market price is worth over Rs 27,800 crore. It has another 4.87 percent stake in GAIL India Ltd. worth Rs 1,600 crore.
“The acquisition of 51.11 percent government stake in HPCL will be funded through a combination of market borrowing and selling some stake in IOC and GAIL,” an official privy to the development said.
Selling stake in the open market may create volatility and so, ONGC is considering selling less than 2 percent stake in IOC to institutional investors like LIC in block deal, he added.
ONGC has already secured shareholder nod to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore debt, he said, adding that the company had about Rs 10,000 crore of cash in hand.
“It will be a combination of stake sale and borrowing to fund the acquisition,” the person quoted above said.
The deal, he said, is likely to conclude by December. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had on July 19 granted ‘in-principle’ approval to the strategic sale of the government’s existing 51.11 percent stake in HPCL to ONGC “along with the transfer of management control, which will result in HPCL becoming a subsidiary company of ONGC”.
But since the offer meant a transfer of management control from the government to ONGC, there was apprehension that it would trigger SEBI’s takeover code and compel ONGC to make an open offer to acquire an additional 26 per cent stake from minority shareholders, he said.
So, the terms of sale have been amended to state that “HPCL will continue to be a government company in terms of section 2(45) of the Companies Act, 2013, and will continue to be controlled by the Government of India through ONGC under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas”.
This helped avoid making an open offer.