(LiveMint)
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) is likely to acquire the central government’s majority stake in refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) by the end of this financial year, but will initially keep the company as a separate unit, two persons familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
Although the initial plan was a merger of the two state-owned companies, the current thinking is to let ONGC take over HPCL so that the sale consideration flows to the exchequer in a year the Union budget has set a disinvestment target of Rs72,500 crore.
Finer details of the transaction are yet to be worked out but news agency Bloomberg said on Thursday the deal could be valued at $4.5 billion for 51.1% of government stake in HPCL, based on Wednesday’s closing price. HPCL stock closed on Thursday at Rs541.3 on BSE, down 1.6%.
