ONGC has received the Information Memorandum from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management for acquiring majority stake in fellow public sector undertaking HPCL.
Newly-appointed ONGC Chairman & MD, Shashi Shankar, said, “This process is on. Only on November 1, we have received this Information Memorandum and that is the stage we are in.”
Shankar was responding to a query on the status of the ONGC-HPCL deal.
“The Cabinet approval for the merger came around July, and then we went to our board and took the in-principle approval in the third week of August,” he added.
ONGC’s acquisition of 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL is in line with the government’s plan to create an integrated energy major with businesses spread across the hydrocarbon value chain.
Regarding the deal ticket size, Shankar said that the government and ONGC are still in the process of assessing the valuation of the deal.
Advisors“From our side, we had appointed Citigroup and SBI Cap. From the DIPAM side, they have appointed JM Financial as their transaction advisor, and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has appointed Protocol for valuation of this company (HPCL). At the same time, we would like to get the valuation done independently at our end. So we are yet in the process of engaging someone,” he said.
The government has set the deadline to complete the ONGC-HPCL deal in the current financial year.