Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday cited the four-decade old Nationalisation Act to justify exempting ONGC from making an open offer after acquiring the government's 51.11 per cent stake in HPCl.
ONGC acquired government's 51.11 per cent stake in HPCl for Rs 36,915 crore but unlike similar deals, it did not make an open offer to buy an additional 26 per cent stake from minority shareholders of HPCl.
“We are bound by the Nationalisation Act and character of HPCl could not have changed, so no open offer was mandated,” Pradhan told reporters here. HPCl came into existence in 1974 when the government took over erstwhile Esso Standard and lube India ltd and nationalised it through the ESSO (Acquisition of Undertaking in India) Act passed by Parliament.