India’s private sector Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) on Sunday outlined plans to divest its oil-to-chemicals (OTC) business, readying the unit for a possible stake sale. The plans, called “scheme of arrangement,” follow a proposal released in April. It lays out the details of the proposed spin-off of its entire OTC assets into a separate unit.
According to a filing on Sunday, the spin-off will be carried out by transferring some of RIL’s primary oil and petrochemicals assets including those in refining, fuel retail, and aviation fuel to a unit of Reliance. The assets transfer will not change their ultimate ownership, according to a separate filing.
The proposed assets separation from the listed company announced in April was seen as a precursor to the $15-billion stake sale to Saudi Aramco. Since then, Aramco has said that it was still working on the stake acquisition plan although Reliance said that the proposed deal faced delays.
