The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is aggressively foraying into the overseas market with its eyes set on 100 petrol bunks in Sri Lanka from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and is planning to bid for two subsidiaries of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
Though the company has a presence in Nepal and Mauritius, this is the first time that IOC is buying out petrol stations in its neighbouring states.
IOC will spruce up these 100 retail outlets for family resemblance before using them. CPC currently owns 1,060 petrol stations across Sri Lanka and has a monopoly in refining, storage and distribution in the country.
IOC has already appointed KPMG as consultant for evaluating the cost of the 100 petrol stations. A dedicated team of IOC officials is in the Island nation to work out the business prospects of the identified retail outlets, according to sources in IOC.
Sources said IOC, which would retail petrol and diesel from the outlets at market price, has been promised an 23 per cent rate of return on investments.
IOC would use the excess capacity at its subsidiary Chennai refinery for supplying transport fuel to Sri Lanka. The refinery is currently undergoing expansion by 3 million tonne to 10.5 million tonne per annum by June 2003.
Besides petrol stations, CPC has also agreed to 10 fuel storage tanks in Sri Lanka
