Central Govt Expecting To Bag Over Rs 80,000 Crore Through BPCL Divestment: Report

The central government is anticipating fetching Rs 80,000 crore by selling its 52.98 per cent stake in the state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). Vedanta Ltd along with a couple of other global private equity funds have displayed an expression of interest to take over the stakes of the petroleum refineries company.

The aforementioned estimation is done on the basis of a valuation at a significant premium to the current prices. Disposing off its holdings in the BPCL forms the core of the government’s disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for this fiscal year.

“We are expecting a price of at least Rs 700-750 per share including a control premium given that the share price has previously reached close to Rs 540,” one of the concerned officials was quoted in an Indian Express report.

The concerned official asserted that the company’s assets value is remarkably higher than what Rs 700-750 per share would indicate. Meanwhile, the central government is set to round up the divestment of BPCL in the first half of the fiscal year 2021-22.

India is considered to be one of the rapidly progressing markets for petroleum products in the world. Hence, industry analysts reportedly claim that a valuation of above Rs 700 per share will be unsurprising. Yet, they mentioned that refining margins have dropped down worldwide and hence securing a high valuation might be difficult presently.