Asian Development Bank sells entire stake in Petronet LNG for Rs 714.5 cr

Asian Development Bank (ADB) today sold its entire 5.2% stake in Petronet LNG Ltd for Rs 714.5 crore via block deals.

ADB sold 3.9 crore shares of India's largest liquefied natural gas importer to CitiGroup and HDFC Mutual Fund at Rs 183.20 per share, according to BSE data.

Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Pvt Ltd bought 88 lakh shares, HDFC Top 200 Fund took 37.7 lakh shares and HDFC Equity Fund purchased 46.7 lakh shares, the data showed.

The stake sale come after a long dispute between Petronet's principal promoters and the firm's management led by its Chairman, who is the Oil Secretary.

Petronet's promoter - IOC, ONGC, GAIL and BPCL were originally interested in buying ADB's 5.2% stake but the company management was opposed to it as it would have led to PSU holding crossing 50% that would turn the LNG importer into a government entity.

Petronet is registered as a private company even though public sector oil firms hold 50% stake and Oil Secretary is its Chairman.

However, the Oil Ministry has refused permission to public sector oil companies for acquiring ADB stake to keep Petronet a private firm.

The ADB on August 23, 2011 offered to sell its 5.2% stake in Petronet, in which GAIL, Indian Oil (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) hold 12.5% stake each and have a first right of refusal.

The board of all the four promoter companies approved exercising the first right of refusal over ADB stake and cash buyout of the multilateral lending agency's interest.

However, the ministry, whose Secretary is the Chairman of PLL, vetoed the proposal at a March 26, 2012 meeting, sources said.

"Keeping in view the specific approval of the Cabinet on restricting the aggregate Government/PSU participation to 50% of paid-up capital for providing the desired flexibility to Petronet LNG Ltd to operate in a dynamic LNG import market, the existing shareholding structure in the context of PSU participation, should be retained," minutes of the meeting stated.

All the four PSUs than reversed their previous board approvals and gave no objection to ADB stake being sold outside the promoter group.

The ministry asked the PSUs to offer the ADB stake to a strategic investor, like am LNG supplier. But with no strategic investor coming forwards, ADB sold its stake via bulk deals.

Gaz de France International (GDFI) holds a 10% in Petronet and also had the right of first refusal over ADB's stake. But the French energy giant waived this off.

ADB's 5.2% stake was to be split equally among the four PSU promoters.