The Government of India has entered into an agreement with ONGC today for the strategic sale of its 51.11% equity share-holding in HPCL at a consideration of Rs. 36,915 crore.
During the review in February 2016, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi underlined the need for efficient management of Government investments in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). The Government accordingly expanded the approach from of disinvestment to investment and public asset management. As part of investment management strategy, Government decided to explore possibilities of consolidation, mergers and acquisitions within CPSE space. An announcement in this regard was made by the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley in his Budget Speech of 2017-18.
In line with the Budget announcement, ONGC proposed to acquire the Government of India’s existing 51.11% equity shareholding in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL). The Union Cabinet, in its meeting held on 19.7.2017, gave ‘in-principle’ approval to the said proposal and decided to set up an Alternative mechanism under the Finance Minister to decide on the price, timing and the terms and conditions of the strategic sale.
The Alternative mechanism under the Chairmanship of the Finance Minister in its meeting today approved the price bid of ONGC and the terms and conditions of the sale.
Through this acquisition, ONGC will become India’s first vertically integrated ‘oil major’ company, having presence across the entire value chain. The integrated entity will have advantage of having enhanced capacity to bear higher risks, take higher investment decisions and neutralizing the impact of volatility of global crude oil prices. In this process, ONGC has acquired significant mid-stream and downstream capacity and will attain economies of scale at various levels of operations.
Through this economic consolidation, HPCL will join as a member of an integrated oil and gas major group. This will help it in further leveraging synergy at various levels of vertical value chains and look for economic consolidation within and outside the Group. However, HPCL will continue to be a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE).
