After the poor start of the country’s largest insurance company Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in the stock market, the government is now looking cautious. According to the news of news agency Reuters, the government will not sell the entire stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). The report quoted government officials as saying that the government may sell up to 20-25 per cent stake in BPCL. Inviting bids for the same is being considered. However, the talks are still in the initial stage.
Entire stake to be sold: Till now the government had targeted to raise $8-10 billion by selling its entire stake of 52.98%. Bids were also invited for the same. The disinvestment process was slow due to Corona.
Received three Expression of Interest (EOI) for BPCL. One of these offers has come from industrialist Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group. Apart from Vedanta, private equity companies Apollo Global and I Squared’s capital arm ThinkGas are included.
However, even the partial sale of BPCL is unlikely to be completed in this financial year as the process would take more than 12 months. However, the backlash on BPCL’s outright stake sale is a sign of slow progress in the government’s privatization plans. Let us tell you that in the year 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a plan to privatize most government companies, including banks, mining companies and insurance companies. However, this was not possible.
Bad luck of LIC: LIC had a bad luck in the stock market on Tuesday. The listing of LIC in the stock market took place with a fall of more than eight percent on the issue price. The company’s share was listed on BSE at Rs 872 per share against the issue price of Rs 949. Whereas LIC shares were listed on NSE at Rs 867.20. This is Rs 77 less than the issue price.