India’s state run refiners purchase Oil India stake

India’s state run refiners, including Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s biggest, will pay about $453 million to buy a 10 percent stake in explorer Oil India Ltd. from the federal government.

Indian Oil bought 10.7 million shares at 1,050 rupees apiece, T.K. Ananthkumar, Oil India’s director of finance, said by telephone today. Bharat Petroleum Corp., the nation’s second- biggest state refiner, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. each bought 5.35 million shares. Payment for the shares will be made later today, said Serangulam V. Narasimhan, Indian Oil’s director of finance. The refiner may pay about 11 billion rupees for the purchase.

The government’s stake was sold when Oil India raised 27.8 billion rupees selling shares at 1,050 rupees apiece in an initial public offering that closed on Sept. 10. The explorer sold 10 percent of its equity to the public and 1 percent to employees.

India should aim to raise as much as 250 billion rupees a year from asset sales to stimulate an economy growing at the slowest pace since 2003, the government said in the Economic Survey for the year ended March 31. The government sold 5 percent of its holding in NHPC Ltd., India’s largest hydroelectric power producer, in August.

Tags:  oil companies, Oil India