Reliance Industries Ltd said Thursday its board approved a scheme to spin off its oil to chemicals business into a separate company, adding that the due diligence by Saudi Aramco to buy a 20 per cent stake in the de-merged business was “on track”.

Reliance, though, didn’t give a timeline on when the deal would be concluded, amid a turmoil in the oil industry marked by falling crude prices and plunge in demand for refined products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel due to the lockdown in many parts of the globe to combat the coronavirus.

The company expect to complete the capital raising programme totalling over Rs1.04 lakh crore by Q1 of the current financial year. This includes the investment by Facebook in Jio Platforms, the upcoming rights issue and the previous investment by British Petroleum in FY20.

The capital raising plan does not mention the planned investment by Saudi Aramco.

RIL signed a non-binding letter of intent with the Saudi oil company in August last year to sell a 20 per cent stake in the oil to chemicals business of Reliance Industries for as much as Rs1.03 lakh crore or roughly $15 billion.

As per the Scheme of Arrangement, Reliance will transfer the O2C business of the Company to Reliance O2C Limited as a going concern on slump sale basis for a lump sum consideration equal to the income tax net worth of the O2C undertaking as on the appointed date of the Scheme.

The O2C undertaking of the company comprises the entire oil-to-chemicals business of the company including refining, petrochemicals, fuel retail and aviation fuel (majority interest only) and bulk wholesale marketing businesses together with its assets and liabilities.

The Scheme is subject to necessary statutory/regulatory approvals under applicable laws including approval of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Reliance said. Ends/

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