BPCL is the top Nifty gainer post their board approving the sale of the company's entire stake in the Numaligarh Refinery (NRL) for nearly Rs 10,000 crore.

N Vijayagopal, Director Finance of BPCL said that they will require shareholders’ approval to decide how to use the proceeds. He added that the shareholders will be meeting on March 25 to finalise plans to use the proceeds.

“The process is still not completed. We need to get shareholders’ approval in an AGM which is slated on March 25. Beyond that the money will come and we hope to close this transaction before end of this financial year. Once this money comes in, the board will need to take a call on how to utilize this. It is possible that a portion of this will go as a dividend. We have a plan to close the Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL) by stake also very soon. Maybe a part of it can be used to pare the debt as well. But it is a board call as of now,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

The stake is purchased by a consortium of Engineers India (EIL), Oil India, and Government of Assam. “Assam government has decided to increase the stake from the present 12.35% to 26%. That is what they are aspiring to get. If they are able to give the consideration before the target date, they can be owners of 26% of NRL. Otherwise we will work out a method in a manner that they get 26%. The balance will be shared between Oil India and EIL. EIL will hold about 4.37% of NRL and rest of it will all go to Oil India,” he explained.

On BPCL divestment, Vijayagopal said that due diligence for the bidders has been done and valuation reports have been submitted. He also said that they are yet to take a decision on selling treasury shares.

Vijayagopal said that Bharat Petro will continue to remain a subsidiary. He said that it is an upstream company and they have no plans to merge it with BPCL.

He also said that they had no intention of selling CGD assets. He added that they were in fact looking at merging Bharat Gas Resources with BPCL.

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(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)