ONGC Reaffirms Strong Financials Post HPCL Takeover

In a bid to allay concerns, the public sector undertaking Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited has (ONGC) has reaffirmed its strong financials. “A section of the press has raised concerns over ONGC’s ability to meet its working capital requirements as well as its capital and operating expenditure. ONGC reaffirms that it has a strong financials in place to finance its projects both ongoing as well as upcoming ones,” an ONGC statement said.

“The company’s operational plans and expenditure thereon has also been in line with its requirement and the news report on its fiscal position is completely out of place. There is no plan or item of expense that had to be deferred due to paucity of funds/ resources,” the statement added. ONGC’s cash reserves have reached alarming levels after the acquisition of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).

“Mergers and acquisitions are business decisions which have been taken by the companies to foster growth and true value accretion from such ventures gets reflected over a period of time. The acquisitions made by ONGC are going to strengthen Company’s growth trajectory,” the statement said. “ONGC, on a standalone basis has a very conservative debt-equity ratio which compares favorably with global benchmarks. The rating of the company is also very strong compared with its peers in the industry,” the company said.