State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) to offer its employees stock before its privatisation

New Delhi: Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) to offer its employees stock options at one-third of the market price. The Public Sector Undertaking (PSU)  company seems to reward staff before it’s stakes are to a private player by the government. BPCL Trust for Investment in Shares’ holds around 9.33% stake of the company’s paid-up share capital. Out of the total 9.33% stake, 2% will be offered to employees at one-third the price of BPCL.

The board approved the proposed Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS) to the specified employees through the trust mechanism, subject to the approval of the shareholders, it said in a regulatory filing. According to sources,  the PSU company looks to reward staff ahead of its looming privatisation.

This will not impact the government’s shareholding in the PSU which holds more than half the stake in the company. The government looks to offload all of its 52.98% stake in BPCL to a strategic investor. BPCL is one of the key entities in the government’s Rs 2.1 lakh crore divestment target for the current fiscal.The Expression of Interest (EoI) for the privatisation is due on 30th September 2020.

The company said, “The Trust formed for the purpose shall purchase the aforesaid shares from the ‘BPCL Trust for Investment in Shares’ by way of secondary acquisition through the stock exchanges as per the SEBI (Share Based Employee Benefits) Regulations, 2014 and other applicable laws,”.