New Delhi: Just a week ahead of the closure of bid submissions for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) stake, the company has offered voluntary retirement to its employees.
The last date for submitting the expressions of interest (EoIs) for the 52.98 % BPCL stake is July 31. The deadline has been postponed twice.
The Bharat Petroleum Voluntary Retirement Scheme - 2020 (BPVRS-2020) opened on July 23 and will close on August 13.
"The Corporation has decided to offer a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), with a view to enable employees, who are not in a position to continue in service of the Corporation due to various personal reasons, to request for grant of voluntary retirement from the services of the Corporation,” BPCL said in an internal notice to its employees.
“Employees opting for VRS would be eligible to receive a compensation payment equivalent to two months’ salary for each completed year of service or the monthly salary at the time of voluntary retirement multiplied by the balance months of service left before normal data of retirement on superannuation, whichever is less,” it said.
Repatriation expenses, as payable in case of retirement, will also be paid. Employees who opt for voluntary retirement will be eligible for medical benefits under Post Retirement Medical Benefit Scheme.
Also, they would be eligible for encashment of leaves including casual, earned and privilege leaves.
While those opting for VRS will neither be eligible for employment in company’s joint ventures nor be engaged as retainers/ consultants/advisors, any persons facing disciplinary action will not be eligible for the scheme, the notice said.
Employees above 45 years of age are eligible for the VRS.
Meanwhile, according to official sources, the government is confident that EoIs will sail through within time with several bidders joining the fray.
The BPCL disinvestment has received interest from several large global oil and gas firms as well as a few Indian entities.
The process, so far, has generated around 100 inquiries, indicating that investors are interested in the Maharatna oil PSU despite the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to official sources privy to the development.
Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc), Rosneft of Russia and ExxonMobil plan to participate in the bidding.
Indian oil majors are not far behind their global counterparts and are pursuing the prospects of bidding for BPCL. Oil-to-telecom major Reliance Industries too is understood to have shown interest.
BPCL will give buyers ready access to 15.3 % of India’s oil refining capacity and 22 % of the fuel market share in the world’s fastest-growing energy market.
BPCL has a market capitalisation of about Rs 97,247 crore and the government stake at current prices is worth over Rs 51,500 crore. The successful bidder will also have to make an open offer to other shareholders for acquiring another 26 percent at the acquisition price.
Privatisation of BPCL is essential for meeting the record Rs 2.1 lakh crore target the finance minister has set from disinvestment proceeds in the budget for 2020-21.
BPCL operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh), and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum, which is 15.3 % of India’s total refining capacity of 249.8 million tonnes.
While the Numaligarh refinery will be carved out of BPCL and sold to a PSU, the new buyer of the company will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity. BPCL also owns about 16,309 petrol pumps and 6,113 LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) distributor agencies in the country. Besides, it has 51 LPG bottling plants.
The company distributes 22 % of petroleum products consumed in the country by volume as of March this year and has more than a fifth of the 256 aviation fuel stations in India. The government has appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP as its transaction advisor for the strategic disinvestment process.
The government of India is proposing strategic disinvestment of its entire shareholding in BPCL comprising of 114.91 crore equity shares, which constitutes 52.98 % of BPCL’s equity share capital, along with transfer of management control to a strategic buyer (except BPCL’s equity shareholding of 61.65 % in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd), the notice inviting offer said.
With inputs from agencies
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