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Journalism of Courage
Banks and financial institutions seem to have made a loss by selling their stake in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) at a discount to the market price. ONGC, which acquired the Aditya Birla group stake at Rs 2 per share and infused additional Rs 600 crore capital, acquired 20.9 per cent shareholding of banks and financial institution at par value of Rs 10. The MRPL stock had closed at Rs 22.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday (June 20). “The sale price is a discount of almost 50 per cent. This is inexplicable,” said an analyst, adding, “they could have got a higher price by offloading in the market.”
ONGC now has 72 per cent holding in MRPL. Take the case of IDBI. IDBI sold 7.56 crore shares (Rs 10 each) of MRPL to ONGC for about Rs 81.5 crore. ONGC, the promoter of MRPL, has purchased 7,56,82,935 shares at Rs 10.77 per share based on the option agreement and executed by both companies (IDBI and ONGC), IDBI said in a release.
The sale transaction, which constituted over one per cent of MRPL’s paid up capital, was part of the deal struck last week in which ONGC had acquired 35.60 crore of MRPL from banks and financial institutions as part of the debt restructuring package taking its holding to 71.49 per cent. These shares were allotted to banks and FIs in conversion of part of their loans to MRPL in terms of the restructuring package.
