Bengal govt accepts Indian Oil bid for Haldia Petrochemicals stake

The West Bengal government has accepted the sole bid of state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for WBIDC's 39.9 per cent stake in troubled Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL).

The company's other shareholder, Purnendu Chatterjee-led The Chatterjee Group (TCG), would be offered the right of first refusal (RoFR) for matching the IOC offer.

"After a series of meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on HPL, the government decided to accept the IOC bid for WBIDC's stake in the petrochemicals firm," Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said. "Consequently, TCG will be given a chance to exercise the right of first refusal."

Although he declined to divulge the bid price and the reserve price fixed by transactional adviser Deloitte, Chatterjee said that IOC offer was higher.

He said the letter to TCG for exercising RoFR would be issued 'as quickly as possible'. Subsequently, TCG would have 30 days time either to accept or decline the offer.

IOC emerged as the sole bidder for WBIDC's 675 million shares in HPL although companies like Reliance Industries, Cairn India, ONGC and GAIL had expressed their interest in the company.

The oil PSU submitted its bid on Monday which was opened on Thursday.

IOC's petrochemicals group head S Mitra flew in from Delhi during the day at behest of the government. The PSU already holds 8.8 per cent in HPL.