Dividend payout hope post Numaligarh Refinery deal drives BPCL stock
Investors of Bharat Petroleum Corportion (BPCL) were handsomely rewarded on Tuesday as market participants rushed to the counter on hopes of special dividend payout. Shares of the state-owned refinery hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 482.4 apiece, up 6 per cent on the BSE, as its Board approved to offload the firm’s holding in the Numaligarh Refinery unit for Rs 9,878 crore ($1.3 billion) as part of BPCL’s privatization process.
The country’s second-biggest state refiner will sell its 61.65 per cent holding in Numaligarh Refinery to a consortium of Oil India Ltd. and Engineers India Ltd. and may also include the state government of Assam, according to an exchange filing.
The participation of the Assam government is subject to the Right of First Refusal (RoFR). In case the state government does not exercise the RoFR, the entire stake will be acquired by the consortium. The transaction requires approval of BPCL’s shareholders and is expected to close within one month after obtaining all requisite approvals.
