Steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal and
Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) may sell a part of their stake in the just commissioned Bhatinda Refinery through an initial public offering (IPO) soon.
"It (IPO) should happen. But the timing is for the company board to decide. I'm not on the board of the company," billionaire Lakshmi N Mittal said after his firm's refinery was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (
HMEL), a joint venture between state-owned HPCL and Mittal Energy Investment Ltd, Singapore, an L N Mittal Group Company, built the Rs 21,500 crore Guru Govind Singh refinery.
The two hold a 49 per cent stake each in HMEL, while the remaining 2 per cent is with financial institutions.
Mittal said public listed companies are more desirable model.
The two promoters may sell 10 per cent stake each in the IPO. The money thus raised would be used by HPCL and Mittal to pay some of their debt.
The
Bhatinda refinery began commercial production few weeks back. A cross-country 1,014-km pipeline transports imported crude oil from Mundra, in Gujarat, to the refinery.
Mittal said the refinery capacity will be doubled to 18 million tons in future.
The refinery already has the land for the expansion and the 1,017-km crude pipeline from Mundra has a capacity to move 18 million tons of oil per annum.
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