After GAIL, Indian Oil Corp has expressed interest in buying out Asian Development Bank’s 5.2 per cent stake in Petronet LNG Ltd, company chairman Sarthak Behuria said here. However, if the state-run promoters of Petronet are not allowed to raise their stake in the company fearing that it would become a public sector unit, Behuria suggested selling ADB’s shareholding to the public.Behuria’s suggestion may find takers in other promoters that want to block the “backdoor” entry of steel czar Lakshmi Mittal into the nation’s largest LNG importing firm. “We have written to Petronet CEO Prosad Dasgupta about our interest in the ADB stake and that if that was not possible, it should be divested in favour of the Indian public,” Behuria said. Petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan, who is also the chairman of Petronet, is against the four promoters buying ADB’s stake and may instead back Dasgupta’s move to get Mittal or US’s Chevron on board. In response to GAIL chairman U D Choubey’s written request for buying out ADB’s stake, Dasgupta had stated that the agency’s stake should be given to a third party like Mittal or Chevron, which in exchange is willing to offer LNG to Petronet.IOC, GAIL, ONGC and BPCL together hold 50 per cent stake in Petronet, while Gaz de France (GdF) holds 10 per cent. These firms have the first right of refusal over the ADB stake. In his letter to Choubey, Dasgupta had stated that if any of the promoters or GdF were to acquire ADB’s 5.2 per cent stake, it would trigger the takeover code and require making an open offer to the public for acquiring additional 20 per cent shares. After the open offer, the holding of the promoters and GdF would rise to 85 per cent, and, since a company cannot remain listed if the public holding goes below 25 per cent, the takeover code would require the promoters and GdF to again collectively make an offer for the remaining 15 per cent, leading to delisting of the company.
