In its bid to create an oil major to match the performance of global and domestic oil and gas players, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) board has approved the acquisition of entire 51.11 percent shareholding of the government in Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) with a total acquisition cost of Rs 36,915 crore on January 19.

ONGC has entered into a share purchase agreement with the government for acquiring the 778,845,375 equity shares of HPCL on January 20, 2018. The PSUs expect to complete the transaction before end of January 2018.

The SEBI has granted an exemption from the application of Regulation 23 of the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements Regulation 2015 (LODR) to the ONGC for the transaction. Requisite approval from the shareholders of ONGC for the related party transaction will be sought by ONGC after the execution of the share purchase agreement.

The acquisition is aimed to achieve the government’s objective to combine the various CPSEs to give them capacity to bear higher risks, avail economies of scale, take higher investment decisions and create more value for the stakeholders and create an oil major which will be able to match the performance of international and domestic private sector oil and gas companies.

ONGC expects, as an integrated oil company, its performance will be less affected by the volatility of crude prices due to diversification of its cash flows to midstream and downstream presence through HPCL, lower earnings volatility, diversified cash flows and lower business risk resulting in better valuation and higher shareholder value.

HPCL and ONGC have a complimentary asset portfolio and through this acquisition, the latter is gaining a midstream and downstream presence and access to a marketing network. ONGC will also gain access to marketing network of HPCL which could be synergistically utilised for projects such as MRPL, OPaL.