'We are singularly focused on the IPO'

Rahul Dhir is one person who is not worried of the rising crude prices since he heads a company "" Cairn Energy India "" which is in the business of oil exploration and production.

Falling oil prices also do not bother him since "our assets are robust even on very low prices", he tells Business Standard

Cairn is already listed on the London Stock Exchange. You say the proposed listing in India later this fiscal is for "strategic" reasons and not for mobilising funds, since you recently tied up a $1 billion line of credit with an international consortium. Can you explain strategic?

Well, 90 per cent of the assets of Cairn PLC (listed in London) are in India. These are also the assets which have moved up from the exploration stage to development, production and commercialisation.

This will split the exploration business -"" which is high risk and high reward "" from the more sustainable business of production and commercialisation.

And would that mean a delisting from London?

No. The India assets would be transferred to a holding company which will list on the Indian exchanges. The original company will have a stake in the new company.

To the detriment of the original shareholders? Additional equity in the market means decline in value per share.

That need not necessarily be so. In fact the value for the original shareholders will be preserved or increased.

Cairn did have some discussions with ONGC for sale of assets but it was stuck on differences in valuation of as much as $1 billion. Your comment.

This is irrelevant today. We are in absolute control of our destiny and Bill Gammell (the chief executive) has not sold a company yet.

But there is always a first time. What if there is an irresistible offer which many market analysts are talking about?

Where are all those offers? The business world is rational. All this is in the realm of speculation. We are singularly focused on the IPO.

There have been reports suggesting your interest in an equity stake in the well-head refinery, in partnership with ONGC in Rajasthan, or even in the retail end of the oil chain?

I don't know why we would do that. India is massively underexplored "" only eight of the 26 sedimentary basins have been explored so far. So we are not opportunity constrained in our areas of core competence. Our operating costs have been flat for the last few years, at less than a dollar a barrel.