HPCL plans to invest Rs 61,000 crore in 5 years

State-owned oil marketer HPCL is planning to invest Rs 61000 crore over the next 5 yrs to scale up its business operations to tap the huge energy demand in the country. From the past one year, the company's shares have risen up to 70% in between the talks of its merger with ONGC. The government had approved the sale 51 percent equity stake in HPCL to ONGC on July 19. Minority shareholders in HPCL may not gain or lose much from the deal, apart from the gain or loss in the share prices, as the deal will be exempt from the mandatory open offer required in cases of acquisition of more than 26 percent equity stake. HPCL owns and operates two major refineries producing a wide variety of petroleum fuels and specialties, one in Mumbai (West Coast) of 7.5 million tons per annum (MMTPA) capacity and the other in Visakhapatnam (East Coast) with a capacity of 8.3 MMTPA.