France’s Engie SA plans to sell its entire 10% holding in India’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas.
GDF International, an Engie unit, has written to the four Indian state-owned companies that together own half of Petronet LNG Ltd. to offer shares in proportion to their holding in the company, Petronet said in a stock-exchange filing on Thursday.
“It is mandatory for GDF to offer its holding to other founders as per the shareholders agreement,” R.K. Garg, finance director of Petronet LNG, said in a phone interview. “Only if the other founders don’t buy, GDF can sell it to anyone it wishes.”
Explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp., refiners Bharat Petroleum Corp., and Indian Oil Corp., and gas distributor GAIL India Ltd. form the founder group, with a 12.5% stake each in Petronet.
Engie holds 75 million shares in Petronet valued at about Rs2,900 crore ($434 million) at current market prices. Petronet fell as much as 1.2% to Rs378.20 in Mumbai and was trading at Rs391.50 as of 2:22 pm.
Subir Purkayastha, director finance of GAIL India Ltd., and A.K. Sharma, the finance head of Indian Oil Corp., couldn’t be reached for comment on their mobile phones.
Source: Mint