Vedanta Limited (NSEI:VEDL) is willing to spend $12 billion to acquire India's state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (NSEI:BPCL), an asset sale that's among the nation's biggest and which has faced delays in completion. “We're not going to bid aggressively, but we will put the right price,” Chairman Anil Agarwal said in an interview in Riyadh on January 12, 2022 . “The market cap of the company is about $11 billion to $12 billion, so this is the amount of investment we're looking at”.

India's plan to privatize BPCL NSE 1.49 % has run into rough weather with bidders struggling to find partners and spread their financial risks for the big-ticket acquisition. The commodities tycoon expects India to open the bids for BPCL in March 2022. Besides Vedanta Group, private equity firms Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE:APO) and I Squared Capital Advisors, LLC have also showed interest in acquiring the government's holding in the oil refiner.

“We've an understanding with people, everyone will be putting the money as the deal comes through,” Agarwal said, adding his company has teamed up with London-based Centricus Asset Management Ltd. to create a $10 billion war chest to buy assets that the Indian government wants to exit, including a stake in Shipping Corp. of India.