A cash-strapped Centre is pressing ahead with its stake-sale plan in five PSUs, but it is moot if minority shareholders of oil marketing company BPCLwill partake of the expected big gains.
The answer, to a large extent, will depend on who the Centre sells its 53.29 per cent stake in BPCL to — to a private player (domestic, such as Reliance Industries, or foreign, such as ExxonMobil/Saudi Aramco/ADNOC), to another PSU, or to a hydrocarbon major such as Indian Oil. If it is the latter, minority shareholders might get the short shrift, as happened last year when the Centre executed an inter-PSU transaction and sold its 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL to ONGC.
Open offer?
At that time, the Centre cut itself a neat deal and pocketed a 14 per cent premium to the HPCL stock’s prevailing market price. ONGC was exempted from making an open offer to acquire an additional 26 per cent stake, depriving minority shareholders the benefit of the premium over the stock price.
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