India's Bharat Oman to file for IPO soon -sources

(For IPO data and performance, please click on <IN/IPOMENU>)

MUMBAI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - India's Bharat Oman Refineries
Ltd, an equal joint venture between state-run Bharat Petroleum
Corp (BPCL.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Oman Oil Co, will soon file for an initial
public offer to raise up to 25 billion rupees ($635 million),
three banking sources involved in the deal said.

The company plans to sell about 48 percent through the
public offer and a pre-IPO placement, the sources told Reuters
on Tuesday.

"We hope to file the draft prospectus by the end of this
week or early next week," one said.

SBI Capital Markets, Citibank (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and ICICI Securities
are among the arrangers of the issue, sources said.

Bharat Petroleum declined comment on the deal.

Bharat Oman Refineries is building a 120,000 barrels per
day (bpd) refinery at Bina in the central Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh at a cost of about 104 billion rupees and has
tied up a debt portion of about 64 billion rupees.

Last week Bharat Petroleum said its board had approved a
proposal to subscribe to Bharat Oman's IPO, with an overall
stake to be limited to 48 percent.

The company said its investment in Bharat Oman would not
exceed 19.96 billion rupees.

The sources said after the IPO Oman Oil's holding in the
company would come down to less than 10 percent.

BPCL runs a 240,000 bpd refinery in Mumbai, India's
financial hub, and another 150,000 bpd refinery in Kochi in the
southern state of Kerala. Its subsidiary Numaligarh Refinery
Ltd runs a 60,000 bpd refinery in north-east India.
($1 = 39.4 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hiral Vora and Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing
by Charlotte Cooper)