BPCL tanks 6% as govt extends deadline to submit EoI to November 16

Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) slipped 6 per cent to Rs 363 on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Wednesday after the government extended the deadline to submit expression of interest (EoI) for the company's privatisation to November 16, 2020.

The government on March 7, 2020, had issued a Preliminary Information Memorandum document (PIM) for inviting Expression of Interest (EOI) for strategic disinvestment of BPCL. "In view of further requests received from the Interested Bidders (IBs) and the prevailing situation arising out of Covid-19 pandemic, the last date for submission of EoIs is further extended to 16th November, 2020 (by 5.00 PM)," the circular said. CLICK HERE FOR RELEASE.

Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, Rosneft and Saudi Aramco are unlikely to bid in the privatisation of the state-owned refiner.

A Rosneft source told the news agency that the company will not buy BPCL, while another source said the Russian oil major would only be interested in BPCL's marketing business which is comprised of fuel depots and more than 16,800 fuel stations. READ MORE

The government proposes to sell its entire shareholding in BPCL, comprising 1.149 million equity shares which constitutes 52.98 per cent of BPCL's equity share capital, along with transfer of management control to a strategic buyer as part of its strategic disinvestment (except BPCL's equity shareholding of 61.65 per cent in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd), the notice inviting offer had said.

At 11:18 am, BPCL was trading 5.5 per cent lower at Rs 365 on the BSE, as compared to 0.19 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped five-fold with a combined 16.3 million equity shares were changing hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.