Staff Welcome Ioc Bid Price

The employees of IBP have welcomed the emergence of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) as the strategic investor in the company, at a price of Rs 1551 per share.

"We have maintained all along that IBP was an underrated company and the excellent valuation reflected in the IOC offer has emphasised the standards of excellence IBP had established and the professionalism of IBP and HSBC, the merchant bankers," IBP chairman S N Mathur said.

"This is one case where the sold out company appears to be attracting more attention than the buyer," Mathur, who had joined IBP with the brief of expediting the privatisation process and maximising valuation of the company, quipped.

Dismissing apprehensions of an immediate change in IBP's top management, Mathur said: "Nobody has told me I am no longer the chairman of IBP. In any case, several procedural issues have to be resolved first".

The relief and happiness was evident at all levels at IBP House, the oil retailer's registered office in Kolkata. Employees held impromptu meetings to welcome the handing over of the company to IOC.

The employees unions had maintained that they would oppose any effort to take the company outside the fold of a public sector enterprise (PSE). With the IOC takeover, IBP would now continue as a PSE, employees pointed out.

At the same time, most expressed surprise at the hefty bid price of Rs 1551 per share submitted by IOC. "The joke doing the rounds is that IOC has paid Rs 1 for each of IBP's 1551 petrol pumps, for that is the exact size of the company's network", said a senior officer.

In private, many admitted they had expected international oil major Shell to emerge as the winner in the bidding process as the multinational had made no secret of its interest in IBP's network.

A small section, however, were convinced that Reliance Industries would come out as winners. The latter has evoked some alarm as well, as the Reliance team had reportedly concluded that IBP would have to shed people if it was handed over to them.