 "A technician is pictured inside a desalter plant of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. File Photo: Reuters")
The Cabinet decision on Wednesday to sell the government’s 51.11 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC, also a state-owned entity) won’t do much for the former’s public shareholders, say experts. It will help the government ease its fiscal deficit and also benefit ONGC, but industry experts do not expect much to change for HPCL’s public shareholders.
The suggested transaction seems likely, at current prices, to fetch the government roughly Rs 30,000 crore. HPCL’s stake buyout means the refiner will become a subsidiary of ONGC. So, instead of the government directly
