Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country’s largest oil producer, said it can fund the entire $2.8 billion for the acquisition of UK-listed Imperial Energy, even if it was not able to raise the $1 billion bridge loan.
“We have enough liquidity to do two more such transactions,” CMD R S Sharma said, adding the company is “not dependent” on the $1-billion bridge loan it was planning to take from Deutsche Bank for the buy.
The oil major had cash and bank deposits of Rs 16,000 crore (or around $3.3 billion) at the end of the March 2008. Deutsche Bank could not be immediately reached for comments.
ONGC Videsh, the company’s overseas investment subsidiary, had in August agreed to buy Imperial Energy, which has oil fields in Russia and Kazakhsthan, for $2.8 billion. ONGC was to lend OVL $1.8 billion at a lower-than-market interest rate of 6 per cent, while another $1 billion was funded by Deustche Bank in the form of a bridge loan.