Explore Business Standard
After HPCL, the government headhunter struggled to find a suitable candidate for the top job at Bharat Petroleum, as most applicants were narrow specialists lacking multidisciplinary experience needed to run a large organisation. The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) last month interviewed a dozen candidates including BPCL Director (Finance) Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta and its Director (Refineries) S Khanna but found none suitable for the job of chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), according to a PESB order. It advised the administrative ministry "to choose an appropriate course of further action for selection including the search cum selection committee," according to the order. Incumbent G Krishnakumar superannuates as chairman and managing director of BPCL on April 30 this year. BPCL is the fourth company in the oil sector where PESB couldn't find a suitable candidate since 2021. PESB in May 2023 did not make any recommendation for the to
State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Monday reported a massive 90 per cent drop in net profit in the June quarter, as refinery margins fell and a fuel price reduction slashed marketing margins. HPCL reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 633.94 crore in April-June -- the first quarter of the current 2024-25 fiscal year -- compared to a profit of Rs 6,765.50 crore a year back, according to a stock exchange filing by the company. Net profit also declined sequentially, when compared to an earning of Rs 2,709.31 crore in the January-March period. Pre-tax earnings from downstream fuel retailing businesses slumped 90 per cent to Rs 907.86 crore. The company and other state-owned fuel retailers -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) -- had last year made extraordinary gains from holding petrol and diesel prices despite a drop in cost. The price freeze was justified in the name of recovering losses BPCL and other two retailers ha