BPCL tarried further on Monday, strengthened by its good showing for the quarter ended 31 December 2002 and a final decision on its disinvestment.

By 9:58 IST, the scrip of the oil refining and marketing PSU edged up 1.52% to Rs 216.90. It had even touched Rs 225 before that. Over 1.98 lakh Bharat Petroleum Corporation shares were exchanged on BSE by then.

On Friday, after market hours, BPCL announced third quarter ended 31 December 2002 net profit at Rs 233 crore (Rs 2.33 billion), up 224% over the Rs 71.90 crore it registered in the corresponding period of the previous year. Net sales increased 29% to Rs 12,645.2 crore (Rs 126.45 billion) from Rs 9,801.1 crore (Rs 98.01 billion) in DQ 2001.

The results were better than what capitalmarket.com (which had assessed three oil and gas analysts) had projected - a net profit of Rs 121-208 crore (Rs 1.21-2.08 billion) and net sales of between Rs 10,957 crore (Rs 109.57 billion) and Rs 11,567 crore (Rs 115.67 billion).

BPCL has also declared an interim dividend of 20% (ie Rs 2 per share)for the financial year 2002-03.

It was not just the results that brought cheer to the BPCL counter. In fact, the more important development seems to be the final approval granted to the company's disinvestment (as well as the modus operandi for disinvestment). The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment late Sunday announced that it has approved the disinvestment of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 4% to Rs 313.45) and BPCL, though it has not specified the timeframes for their sale.

In case of HPCL, 34.01% will be sold to a strategic partner, 5% to the company's employees and the government will retain 12% equity. With regard to BPCL, the government will come out with a public issue of 35.2% of the equity, 5% will be reserved for its employees and the government will retain 26%

Currently, the government holding in BPCL is 66.2%, while in HPCL, it is 51.01%.

HPCL has about 4,600 retail outlets and a 20% market share in retailing petroleum products. BPCL has about 4,500 retail outlets and a 20% share in the petroleum products market. As per recent reports, BPCL plans to double its refining capacity to 2,40,000 bpd from the current 1,30,000 bpd by October 2004, and modify its refineries so that it can process different grades of oil. The total cost of the expansion and modernisation is estimated at Rs 1,831 crore, of which Rs 1,200 crore has already been spent.

For the second quarter ended 30 September 2002, HPCL reported a massive 225% rise in net profit to Rs 456 crore (Rs 4.56 billion) on a top line growth of 11.3% to Rs 12,184.74 crore (Rs 121.84 billion).

BSE code; 500547