India's ONGC to buy majority stake in refiner HPCL

New Delhi

INDIA'S biggest explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has agreed to buy the government's majority stake in state-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) for 369 billion rupees (S$7.6 billion), ONGC said on Saturday.

It will pay a premium of about 14 per cent on HPCL's current market price for the 51.1 per cent stake, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange. It expects to complete the transaction by end-January.