Hyderabad, India-based Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd, a Hinduja group company, announced its board of directors has approved the divestment of its stake in three of its overseas subsidiaries, Gulf Oil Yantai (51 percent holding), Gulf Oil Indonesia (75 percent holding) and Gulf Oil Bangladesh (51 percent holding).
Yantai is a city in northeastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China.
According to S. Pramanik, Managing Director, this divestment would help the company focus on the lubricants business in India and grow further with the de-merger of the lubricants business into a listed company, Gulf Oil Lubricants Ltd, formerly Hinduja Infrastructure Ltd.
Based on an enlisted valuers assessment, the company has decided to divest the holding for an overall amount of Rs 54.9 crore (US$8,772,000). The company had invested Rs 29.1 crore in these subsidiaries.
In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company said that necessary steps will be taken to complete the divestment process over the next 2-3 months taking into account regulatory requirements in the countries where these subsidiaries were formed.
In early August, the board of directors of Gulf Oil Corporation Limited approved the demerger of its lubricants division and transfer to a wholly-owned newly created subsidiary Hinduja Infrastructure Limited (HIL). GOCL's other business segments are in industrial explosives, mining, infrastructure and property development. The Lubricants Division contributes the largest chunk of revenue to the company.
Gulf Oil International Group owns the Gulf trademark outright in essentially all countries outside of the United States, Spain and Portugal, having operations, according to the company, in over 100 countries around the world.
