Targeting to conclude BPCL strategic sale by June: DIPAM Secretary

New Delhi: The authorities is concentrating on to conclude the strategic sale of within the June quarter, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey stated on Thursday. “I think we are targeting the first quarter (of 2021-22 fiscal). The engagement is intense now, it is at the due diligence stage. Our process is of value maximisation, and we have to take all precautions to see the value is maximised,” Pandey stated at an occasion organised by Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund.

The authorities has obtained three preliminary bids for getting of controlling stake in India’s second-largest gas retailer Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).

Mining-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta had in November confirmed placing in an expression of curiosity (EoI) for getting the federal government’s 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL. The different two bidders are stated to be world funds, one in every of them being Apollo Global Management.

Pandey stated privatisation of public sector models is a tough activity. However, it is going to be achieved when personal sector exhibits curiosity in brownfield acquisitions.

“As private sector interest revives through the slew of measures that the government has taken in terms of economy, the stimulus, the capex, we expect them to come and make disinvestment offerings one of the important aspects of their capital formation strategy which includes the brownfield assets which could be taken to new heights,” he stated.

Pandey stated when the federal government invitations EoIs for promoting CPSEs, personal sector too ought to present curiosity by inserting bids.

“You need two hands to clap and if we have an offering, we also expect that the private sector interest is also coming forward to pick up those offerings,” he stated.

The authorities has already invited bids for strategic sale of BPCL, Air India, Pawan Hans, BEML, Shipping Corp and Neelachal

Nigam Ltd. Also, the method of sale of Vizag Steel or RINL has obtained Cabinet nod.

On the proposed preliminary public providing of Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), Pandey stated the federal government is but to resolve on the dimensions of the stake to be bought.

For 2021-22, the federal government has set a disinvestment goal of Rs 1.75 lakh crore, over 5 occasions what it’s aiming to increase within the present monetary yr. In the Revised Estimates, the goal has been set at Rs 32,000 crore for the present fiscal.