Centre decides stake sale of BPCL
The Union Cabinet has approved the sale of its 53.29% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd ( BPCL ) to a private entity. The state-owned company is one of the most profitable oil refiners and operates fuel stations. At the prevailing market cap, the government expects to garner about Rs 56,000 crore from the stake sale. The government’s idea of privatising BPCL was to usher in greater competition in sectors that can sustain on their own. The government is keen to get international energy majors such as Saudi Aramco, Total SA of France and ExxonMobile to operate in the downstreama fuel marketing business so as to bring in greater competition. In fact, BPCL will offer attractive buy for global oil majors such as Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia. However, with global oil prices in a slowdown mode, the appetite for large acquisition becomes difficult. Privatisation of BPCL would help realise a higher price and may take out politics out of auto fuel pricing. At present, BPCL operates four...