Bharat Oman Refineries files for IPO

By Hiral Vora and Narayanan Somasundaram

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd, an equal joint venture between state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Oman Oil Co, filed papers on Friday for an initial public offer, a senior company official said.

"We are coming to the market with a strong promoter backing and a project which is 50 percent complete and are confident that our's is a good offer which will be reasonably priced," D.M. Naik Bengre, senior vice-president at Bharat Oman said.

Four sources directly involved in the deal, from BPCL and bankers to the issue, had earlier on Friday told Reuters the company plans to file for an IPO, shrugging off concerns about investor appetite for offerings.

The sources had said the company planned to sell about 48 percent through the public offer and a pre-IPO placement to raise up to 25 billion rupees ($625 million).

Naik Bengre said the total figure would be known later.

"We have kept the structure of the IPO open and will finalise the actual amount to be raised only after arriving at a price during the pre-IPO placement," he told Reuters.

Bharat Oman is building a 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at a cost of 104 billion rupees, and Naik Bengre said it would be funded through loans of 64 billion rupees and remaining through equity.

The refinery at Bina in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is expected to be commissioned in January 2010, Bharat Petroleum said in a separate statement.