‘BPCL valuation too high, Vedanta will examine bid’

At the close of trading on Friday, BPCL had a market capitalisation of Rs 92,464.40 crore. At this price, the government’s 52.98 per cent stake that is being sold in the country’s largest privatisation exercise is worth about Rs 49,000 crore. The acquirer will also be required to make an open offer for another 26 per cent stake from minority shareholders which will cost another Rs 24,000 crore. “We certainly are interested in bidding but the valuations are too high,” Agarwal said here. “The bid document is not yet out and we will carefully evaluate bidding once the offer document is out.”

He said share price has moved up 40-50 per cent since the time the government announced its plan to sell stake in November last year.

“There are lot of synergies BPCL has with our business. I am the largest private oil producer in the country” and BPCL has refineries to process it and a network of petrol pumps to sell fuel produced from it, he said. “We will evaluate bidding (for BPCL), let’s see.” The Centre plans to sell its entire 52.98 pc stake in BPCL that will give buyers ready access to 14 pc of India’s oil refining capacity and about one-fifth of the fuel market share in the world’s fastest-growing energy market.