A day after the government referred its $9.6 billion deal to a panel of ministers; UK's Cairn Energy Plc on Thursday said it has extended the deadline for completion of the sale of a majority stake in its Indian unit to Vedanta Resources by over a month to May 20.
UK-based Cairn Energy PLC on Tuesday said it will drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the US, within a couple of days of getting a USD 1 billion refund resulting from the scrapping of a retrospective tax law.
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The Union government's offer of settling the retrospective taxation case with Cairn Energy may hinge on Vedanta withdrawing the ongoing arbitration from the Singapore Tribunal on the same issue. The government has offered to refund Cairn Energy Rs 7,900 crore that it had collected under the retrospective tax demand on fulfilment of certain conditions, including withdrawal of pending litigation and furnishing of an undertaking to the effect that no claim for cost, damages, interest, etc., would be filed. This condition is also part of the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, passed by Parliament recently.
The Indian State does not believe in the rule of law. It does not even recognise the need to follow treaties that it itself signed. And so it is refusing to shell out to Cairn; and, as a consequence, has brought on the Paris humiliation, notes Mihir S Sharma.
Cairn India is open to buying the 30 per cent stake that government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation owns in its oil block in Rajasthan. Cairn India is the operator of the block, with 70 per cent ownership currently.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc has offered to forego $500 million and invest that amount in any oil and gas or renewable energy project identified by the Indian government if New Delhi agrees to honour an international arbitration award and returns the value of loss it incurred because of being taxed retrospectively, sources said. The Scottish firm invested in the oil and gas sector in India in 1994 and a decade later it made a huge oil discovery in Rajasthan. In 2006-07, it listed its Indian assets on the BSE. Five years after that the government passed a retroactive tax law and billed Cairn Rs 10,247 crore plus interest and penalty for the reorganisation tied to the flotation.
The UK-based Cairn Energy on Monday said it will sell 51 per cent stake in its Indian unit to mining firm Vedanta Resources Plc for $8.48 billion.
The recruitment drive is looking to fill more than 300 key positions for the Rajasthan project, a company statement said.
ONGC, which is a 30 per cent partner with Cairn India in the giant Rajasthan oil field, had claimed that it had preemption or right of first refusal in Cairn India assets, like the Rajasthan block.
The company sent the reminder on September 10, ONGC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Vedanta is offering $8.48 billion to buy up to a 51 per cent stake in Cairn India, which has 10 oil assets in the country, including the giant Rajasthan oilfield.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc on Tuesday said it will seek shareholder nod for sale of majority stake in its Indian arm, Cairn India, to London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc for up to $8.48 billion on October 7.
Cairn Energy is back to its original image of an explorer, with its prime producing properties in India now going into the Vedanta group kitty.
A day after agreeing to sell majority stake in its India subsidiary for $8.48 billion, UK's Cairn Energy Plc top management on Tuesday met Oil Minister Murli Deora and other key officials to clear any regulatory roadblocks to the deal with Vedanta Resources.
Cairn India can produce up to 2,40,000 barrels per day from its prolific Rajasthan fields, equivalent to output from the nation's largest oilfield of Mumbai High, the company has informed the government.
The company management remained tight-lipped about the resignations, but indicated there was nothing unusual in these movements.
More than three months after announcing the sale of its up to 51 per cent stake in the Indian unit to Vedanta, Cairn Energy Plc on November 23 last year had made a conditional application to seek government's nod but refused to accept partner ONGC's rights.
During a series of hectic talks between Cairn Energy and the Indian government over the $1.2-billion arbitration award in favour of the former last week, a slew of options was proposed by the two sides, including computation of capital gains and participation in the Vivad se Vishwas (VsV) dispute resolution scheme. The government is likely to go ahead and appeal against the arbitration award by a Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague before March 21, indicated finance ministry officials. Cairn Energy Plc on Sunday said it was hopeful that an acceptable solution to its tax dispute with the Indian government could be found to avoid prolonging and exacerbating the 'negative issue' for all parties.
Fixed deposits can fetch 9-9.5% interest versus 3.5% to be received by Cairn, say institutions.
It is the second firm to have received retrospective tax notice this year after Vodafone Group.
Cairn Energy Plc's deal to sell a majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources for up to $8.48 billion is contingent upon the billionaire Anil Agarwal-led group completing an open offer to minority shareholders of Cairn India, a senior official said.
Some retail investors have withdrawn from the initial public offer of Cairn India after the closure of the issue, which managed to receive 1.1 times subscription.
Petronas of Malaysia has picked up about 10 per cent stake in Cairn India Ltd, the subsidiary of Scottish oil firm Cairn Energy Plc, that is to be listed on Bombay Stock Exchange by the end of next month.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices on a public interest suit challenging the role of the central government and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in the deal between Cairn India and Vedanta Resources.
Indian Oil Corporation has started buying crude oil from Cairn India's Rajasthan oil fields, which have now crossed the 1,00,000 barrels per day mark in production.
The board of ONGC has approved its 30 per cent share of the $2.431 billion revised field development cost proposed by Cairn India for the Block RJ-ON-90/1, petroleum minister Murli Deora informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. ONGC will invest $729.43 million.
Net profit in 2012 was $72.6 million, compared with $4.56 billion profit in 2011, Cairn said in a statement.
ONGC sought opinion from the second highest law officer of the country after its partner Cairn Energy Plc stated that the UK firm's sale of majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources will not trigger pre-emption rights of the state- owned firm, a top oil ministry official said.
Britain's Cairn Energy has secured a French court order to seize 20 Indian govt properties to recover arbitration award, it is learnt.
The Edinburgh-based firm's current application seeking the nod for sale of 40 to 51 per cent in Cairn India, for up to $8.48 billion, has left out three producing properties, including the giant Rajasthan oilfields.
Air India has asked a New York court to dismiss a petition filed by Britain's Cairn Energy for seizure of its assets to enforce $1.2 billion arbitral awards against the Indian government, saying the litigation was premature as an appeal against the arbitration award was still pending. The petition by the airline, which is separate to Indian government's plea in a Washington court seeking dismissal of Cairn's lawsuit to seek confirmation of the arbitral award, said the New York district court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate a "mere hypothetical question" or one that depends upon contingent future events that may or may not occur. Cairn first moved a court in the US District Court for the District of Columbia seeking confirmation of the arbitration award and then filed a petition in the New York court to seek declaration of Air India as "alter ego" of the Indian government and so it should be made liable to pay the $1.26 billion arbitral award.
Cairn India, whose success in Rajasthan may have propelled Reliance to bid for two blocks in the state, has submitted offers for only two blocks -- one onland and one offshore.
Cairn Energy Plc chief executive Bill Gammell described the 30-minute meeting as 'positive and constructive'.
Apparently making amends to past slip-ups, UK's Cairn Energy on Thursday courted the government and ONGC to clear-up "misgivings" on sale of majority stake in its Indian arm to Vedanta Resources.
As the Champions Trophy kicks off, some memorable moments from past tournaments.
In a setback to the Cairn-Vedanta deal, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium has reaffirmed that the government can impose preconditions like equitable sharing of royalty in the all-important Rajasthan block for clearing Vedanta Resources' takeover of Cairn India.
Issues related to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) and bilateral investment treaty between India and the UK are expected to figure during the three-day visit of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to London from April 8-10, official sources said. The minister will attend a host of meetings, including the India-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue, in London.
UK-based Cairn Energy PLC on Wednesday said it has agreed to drop litigations to seize Indian properties in countries ranging from France to the UK as it has accepted the Indian government's offer to settle tax dispute relating to the levy of taxes retrospectively. Meeting the requirements of new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company has given required undertakings indemnifying the Indian government against future claims as well as agreeing to drop any legal proceedings anywhere in the world. The government now has to accept this and issue Cairn a so-called Form-II, that will commit it to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand.
Courts in five countries including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc - a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay, sources said. Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4 billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country's revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax. Of these, the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has been recognised and confirmed by courts in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada and France, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
ONGC's return on investment becomes positive after govt makes Barmer block royalty cost-recoverable.
In all, 61 companies have been pre-qualified to bid for 11 shallow water and 19 deepwater blocks in an international tender, according to Myanmar's Energy Ministry.
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