NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday put on sale its entire 52.98% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), allowing foreign and domestic private entities with a net worth of $10 billion to bid for acquiring India’s second-largest state-run oil refiner-retailer but barred other state-run companies from participating.
This will be the first sale of government stake in a profitable public sector company through bidding since 2003 when the NDA-1 government under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee sold fuel retailer IBP. In yet another first, the sale will be through e-bidding, so far used for auctioning natural resources.
Privatisation of BPCL will also transform the world’s fastest-growing fuel market, dominated by state-run entities, through competition and introduction of disruptive technologies. The Centre is expected to raise more than is Rs 46,300 crore from the sale based on current market price of the company stock. The valuation of BPCL had spiked soon after talks of its privatisation beg
