New Delhi: Vedanta Group confirmed on Wednesday having submitted a preliminary expression of interest (EoI) to buy the government’s nearly 53% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), linked to the privatization.
Vedanta’s interest in India’s second-largest fuel retailer is due to synergies with its current oil and gas business.
The government is selling its entire 52.98 percent stake in BPCL and the last date to post the EoI was November 16.
“Vedanta’s EoI for BPCL is to assess potential synergies with our current oil and gas business,” the company spokesperson said in a statement. “The EoI is in a preliminary stage and exploratory in nature.”
At the closing of the tender, the government had declared that “multiple” EIs had been received. However, it did not reveal the identity of the bidders.
The government received “multiple” offers on Monday to buy its stake in India’s second-largest fuel retailer BPCL, but Reliance Industries from billionaire Mukesh Ambani, as well as supermajorities Saudi Aramco, BP and Total, did not submit any offers.
Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary of the Department of Investment and Management of Public Assets (DIPAM), which is in charge of the sale, tweeted that the transaction advisers for the sale of the government’s 52.98 percent stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) reported receiving “multiple expressions of interest.”
“The transaction will move to the second stage after scrutiny by TA,” he said.
TA stands for Transaction Advisor.
“BPCL’s strategic divestment is progressing: it now moves to the second stage after multiple expressions of interest have been received,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also tweeted.
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