The request by Andrew Yule's board to suspend the disinvestment of Tide Water Oil Co (India) is yet to elicit any response from the government.
The Cabinet had approved the disinvestment of a 26 per cent stake in Tide Water Oil back by Andrew Yule in 2007, but no progress has been made since.
"The government nod to our request to stall the disinvestment plan is yet to arrive. Neither can we say that disinvestment process has been scrapped," the Chairman of both Andrew Yule and Tide Water Oil, Kallol Datta, said here today.
Asked whether Tide Water will go for a FPO, Datta said there was no concrete plan in place on how to raise funds. "There are various options but we will not use any method by which our stake gets diluted from current level," he said.
Tide Water needs to raise money through an FPO to fund its plans for diversification, including venturing into the refining business, Datta said, without divulging any other details.
"What we are planning is not large-scale refining done by the oil companies but something quite different," Datta said.
Tide Water's current lubricant-making capacity is 92,500 kilo-litres a year, to be raised to over 1 million kilo-litres by end 2011-12.
"We have already invested close to Rs 40 crore in setting up two new plants and another Rs 10 crore would be invested to raise capacity further," Datta said.
Tide Water enjoys a modest share of the lubricants market with its Veedol brand for two-wheeler and truck tyres and has just launched a new lubricant, Blue Blood, for cars, in select regions.
Datta is aiming at a top-line of Rs 1,000 crore and a bottomline of Rs 100 crore for Tide Water in 2011-12.
