The government has extended the deadline to bid for its entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL to November 16 and this virtually rules out the chances of the budgeted divestment target of being met this fiscal.
The extension — fourth so far— comes amidst reports that Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Rosneft of Russia may not participate in this bidding round because of falling crude prices and a worsening economic environment for refineries across the world, including India.
Brokerage Emkay in a report has said that refineries in India had seen throughput decline in August because of weak demand and planned maintenance shutdowns.
“In view of further requests received from the interested bidders and the prevailing situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, the last date for submission of EoIs (expression of interest) is further extended to November 16,” the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) said in a notice.
Initially, the EoI submission deadline was May 2, but it was first extended up to June 13, then to July 31 and later to September 30.
After EoIs come in, the government will open a data center for the interested bidders to conduct a due diligence, only after which financial bids will be called, industry sources said.
