Govt liberalises definition of net worth for BPCL bidders; $10 billion criteria must for bidding

Although, the original net worth criteria for a single or a consortium of bidders to have $10 billion net worth remains unchanged, the tweak in the definition allows potential bidders freedom to include non controlling stakes in their joint ventures, in the calculation of the $10 billion net worth requirement to become eligible to bid.

Third, the government has allowed interested bidders after the EoI stage to form special purpose vehicle for the actual transaction. In this case, the SPV, which can be formed in a friendly jurisdiction by the bidders, will do the transaction, thereby, the global parent company will not have to be directly involved. So far this arrangement was not available for sole bidders but was limited to consortium bidding.

The government in total has replied to 46 queries of interested parties and so far the deadline for inviting bids remains unchanged which is September 30.