Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has said its board will on Thursday consider buying out Oman Oil Company in the Bina refinery project in Madhya Pradesh.
BPCL board will also consider merging Bharat Gas Resources Ltd(BGRL) with itself, the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges on Tuesday.
BPCL holds 63.68% stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which built and operates a 7.8 million tonne oil refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh.
The company board will on December 17 “consider a proposal for according ‘in-principle’ approval” for “acquisition of 36.62% of equity shares in BORL from OQ S.A.O.C. (formerly known as Oman Oil Company S.A.O.C.),” it said.
This would amount to the acquisition of 88.8 crore equity shares from OQ.
The board would also consider a proposal to approach the Madhya Pradesh government for acquiring 2.69 crore warrants held by it in BORL.
The meeting would also consider “merger of Bharat Gas Resources Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPCL) with BPCL,” the filing said.
BPCL incorporated BGRL for handling the natural gas business in June 2018. It won licence to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households and industries in 13 Geographical Areas under round 9 and round 10 of City Gas Distribution (CGD).
BGRL is also planning to put up an LNG import terminal along the East Coast of India.
Oman Oil had recently expressed interest to divest its stake in BORL.
BORL became a subsidiary of BPCL in March this year when it converted warrants into shares taking the state-owned refiner’s stake in the erstwhile equal joint venture to 63.38%.
In addition to the equity investment in BORL, BPCL had subscribed to zero per cent compulsorily convertible debentures of ₹1,000 crore and share warrants of ₹1,585.68 crores which on conversion would turn BORL into a subsidiary of BPCL.
