August 3, 2002 | 1328 IST
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Money > Business Headlines > Report August 3, 2002 | 1328 IST |
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Selloff timing will decide whether it's HPCL or BPCL, says MukeshBS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai Reliance Industries' interest in bidding for the state-owned oil majors HPCL and BPCL will depend critically on the timing of the proposed divestment, but it will definitely bid for one of the two companies, its Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani said. RIL will "aggressively" bid for BPCL if it comes up for divestment before March 2003, but if the divestment process is delayed further, the company will target HPCL, he said. Speaking of RIL's own retail marketing rollout plans, Ambani said: "By April 2004, we will have our entire infrastructure in place. Clearly, we have to take a view on which company to bid for depending on the status of our investments put in place (till that time). But we are certain we will bid for one of the companies." The timing, he said, became a critical issue, since BPCL and HPCL had different areas of strength and how they meshed into the RIL gameplan depended on what the status of RIL's rollout was. If the divestment process is initiated before RIL has fully committed resources into its own rollout plans, it will prefer to go for BPCL since it has comparatively "better financial numbers and will add muscle to RIL's own retail infrastructure." But if the divestment comes after March 2003, RIL will target HPCL, "where tremendous value can be unlocked with relatively low investments," Ambani rationalised, adding that "the idea is not to duplicate effort between RIL and the state-owned marketing companies coming up for divestment". Ambani reiterated that RIL would be ready with its retail infrastructure by April 1, 2004, by which date "it would have completed its contractual obligation with IOC, which runs from April 1, 2002, to April 1, 2004." Powered by ALSO READ:
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