(ET)
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley will head a panel that will oversee and speed up Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s acquisition of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. Steps will be taken to ensure that the “cultural uniqueness” and “brand identity” of HPCL, India’s third-largest oil refiner, are maintained after ONGC takes over, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed on Wednesday evening. ET has reviewed the broad points of the briefing. The ONGC-HPCL union will “give enhanced capacity to ONGC to neutralise” global oil price volatility, the committee was told.
CCEA accorded “in-principle approval” to the strategic sale of the government’s 51.1 per cent equity shareholding in HPCL “along with transfer of management control” to ONGC. Both ONGC and HPCL are state-owned enterprises.
