|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 7 December 2002 |
 |
|
 |
News | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
by Ravi Ladduwahetty Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC), the Sri Lanka based wholly owned subsidiary of the giant Fortune 500 Indian Oil Corporation, will invest Rs. 10 billion in Sri Lanka and will operate 100 petrol filling stations which it has purchased from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, LIOC Chairman N.K. Nayyar told the Daily News in an interview on Thursday night. Nayyar, who is also a member of the main Board of the Indian Oil Corporation, said that the LIOC filling stations will be refurbished to have car washes, supermarkets, Automated Teller Machines, food marts and cyber cafes and will eventually be a force to reckon with in a market which sells four million tonnes of petroleum products per annum. The Indian giant has been ranked number one in the petroleum field in the Asia Pacific Region and ranks 249 overall in the coveted Fortune 500 list. The Annual Turnover of IOC for the year ended March 31, 2002 was US$ 23,572 m (Indian Rupees- 11.4 trillion) and the post tax profits for the same period were US$ 592 million ( Indian Rs- 208.5 billion) IOC is the market leader with 48 percent in the 100 million tonne Indian Petroleum industry with the other players being Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation jointly accounting for the remaining 52 percent. "We will be benchmarking international standards with Sri Lankan values," Nayyar said. Of the one hundred percent Foreign Direct Investment of Rs. 10 billion, Rs. 5 billion will go in the form of equity while the other Rs. 5 billion will go in for infrastructure development of the petrol sheds where the discerning consumer will have value for money. The sheds will be ready for operation by June 2003, he said. LIOC Managing Director/CEO M. Nageswaran said: "Indian Oil Corporation, through the Sri Lankan subsidiary, will initially invest Rs. 5 billion in equity and a further Rs. 5 billion infrastructure investment in Sri Lanka which will not only provide the discerning Sri Lankan consumer a user friendly value added service." He said that LIOC will be purchasing petroleum products from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and will also import in the event of shortages here. Responding to a question as to what market share LIOC would be initially aiming at and when the break even point of the company would be, he said that OIC was in Sri Lanka in the long term and would operate to the customers' delight. Let the clients decide the difference, he said. This follows the Government's decision of liberalising the petroleum sector where the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation will compete with the private sector. The Indian Oil Corporation will be the second player in the Sri Lankan market while a third player will also be invited soon. LIOC signed two Agreements on Thursday with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the Public Enterprises Reforms Commission (PERC) in this regard. Managing Director/CEO M. Nageswaran signed on behalf of LIOC while the Sri Lankan signatories were Chairman Arjunna Mahendran on behalf of BOI, Dr. P.B. Jayasundera on behalf of PERC and Chairman Daham Wimalasena on behalf of the CPC. LIOC will be taking over the management of the sheds next month which have been identified in the main cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura and the company has successfully held road shows in these cities, Nayyar said. LIOC's Head of Sales Somesh Jahinhan said: "The prospects in Sri Lanka are extremely exciting and we will be customer focused. We will market an export quality product to the customers' delight". |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
