IPCL disinvestment unlikely this fiscal

IPCL disinvestment unlikely this fiscal
SANTANU GHOSH

NEW DELHI, JAN 5: Disinvestment of government's 25 per cent stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) is unlikely to be through by the current fiscal. After the transfer of Baroda plant to IOC, the government has decided to go for equity sale in the rest of the two plants of IPCL. For this, new bidders are expected to pitch in apart from the two old bidders -- Reliance and IOC-Chatterjee Group.

Talking to The Indian Express, senior officials in the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) pointed out that the government is expecting new bidders for the rest of the two plants of IPCL. In that case, the bidding process will begin afresh and due diligence has to be done again even by the old bidders. Though the process of transfer of Baroda plant of IPCL to IOC is one course, it seems unlikely that the equity sale in the rest of the two plants would materialise by the end of the current fiscal, officials added.

The decision to go for equity sale (being termed as ``company sale'' by government officials) for the rest of the two plants of IPCL has opened the opportunity for new bidders to pitch in. Earlier, IOC had also expressed its willingness to bid for the rest of the two plants of IPCL. Senior IOC officials had stated that this would provide the much needed synergy in their operations.

However, government officials maintained that in case no new bidders pitch in for the rest of the two plants, then there would not be a necessity to go for fresh due diligence by the two players already shortlisted. The disinvestment process might be completed earlier in that case.

According to media reports, Chatterjee Group, shortlisted for becoming strategic partner in IPCL, has also sought to acquire government stake in IPCL through direct negotiations even as its joint bidding partner IOC took an opposite line. Purnendu Chatterjee of Chatterjee Group has written to the government to ``find an appropriate mechanism of divesting IPCL'' through a ``negotiated sale''.

The government has decided to bifurcate IPCL to sell Baroda plant to IOC on a negotitated basis while other two plants through international bidding. In the process, government reversed its earlier decision of divesting stake in the combined entity for which two bidders were shortlisted.µ