India’s biggest consumer electronics maker Videocon Industries Ltd plans to combine its energy assets and sell a stake in the business to help pay debt and fund purchases of oil and gas areas.

As per report the company, is in talks with investors, including Chinese companies, for the stake sale said Mr Suresh M Hegde the group’s finance chief said that “Videocon may also sell as much as 25% stake in the energy unit in an initial public offering within six months to monetise oil and gas assets.”

Videocon is betting state run Chinese companies, which bid a record USD 38.8 billion this year to acquire energy assets overseas, will extend their purchasing spree. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao who is visiting the South Asian nation this week, said that China will seek to boost commerce with India, while reducing his country’s USD 18 billion trade surplus.

Mr Hegde in an interview said that “Chinese investors give better value than any other investors. Chinese demand for oil assets is huge.”

But he didn’t name the investors. India’s energy use may more than double by 2030 to the equivalent of 833 million tonnes of oil from 2007, while China’s demand may rise 87% to 2.4 billion tones.

Brazil, Mozambique Videocon and partners Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp made three natural gas discoveries off the coast of Mozambique, according to a November 29 statement. The company and its partners have also found hydrocarbons in Brazil and Indonesia and Brazil.

(Sourced from BS)