ADB to divest Petronet LNG stake to Indian oil majors
06 Sep 2010
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has written to the promoters of Petronet LNG Ltd expressing its intention to quit the gas trading and distributing company.
ADB owns shares 5 per cent stake in Petronet LNG worth around Rs444 crore ($95.6 million), which it wants the other major shareholders like IOC, ONGC, BPCL and GAIL to acquire, oil secretary said today.
As per the articles of association of the company, ONGC, IOC, BPCL and GAIL are expected to hold 12.5 per cent each in PLL, taking their combined shareholding to 50 per cent.
The four public sector promoters, however, cannot hold more than 50 per cent of Petronet stake at any given point of time. It is also not known how the stake sale to promoters would materialise.
European gas company GDF SUEZ is the strategic partner holding 10 per cent equity in Petronet LNG while ADB holds 5.2 per cent stake.
The public, financial institutional investors and mutual funds hold the balance 34.8 per cent.
