Tide Water still waiting for govt nod to drop divestment plan

The request by Andrew Yule's board to suspend the disinvestment of Tide Water Oil Co (India) is yet to elicit any response from the government.

The Cabinet had approved the disinvestment of a 26 per cent stake in Tide Water Oil back by Andrew Yule in 2007, but no progress has been made since.

"The government nod to our request to stall the disinvestment plan is yet to arrive. Neither can we say that disinvestment process has been scrapped," the Chairman of both Andrew Yule and Tide Water Oil, Kallol Datta, said here today.

Asked whether Tide Water will go for a FPO, Datta said there was no concrete plan in place on how to raise funds. "There are various options but we will not use any method by which our stake gets diluted from current level," he said.

Tide Water needs to raise money through an FPO to fund its plans for diversification, including venturing into the refining business, Datta said, without divulging any other details.

"What we are planning is not large-scale refining done by the oil companies but something quite different," Datta said.