Petronet India on Thursday kicked off its divestment programme by seeking bids for sale of 100 per cent stake of the company.

The company, alternatively, would hive off 26 per cent equity holdings in its three joint venture companies -- Petronet VK Ltd, Petronet CCK Ltd and Petronet MHB Ltd promoted with different PSU and private energy companies.

Sources said the company was also holding talks with various energy majors, banks and institutions seeking buyers.

PIL, a non-government joint venture, was formed as a JV by the public sector oil companies, Indian Oil Corporation [Get Quote], Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd [Get Quote] and Bharat

Petroleum Corporation Ltd, and has a 16 per cent equity each in the company, while IBP has a 2 per cent stake, Essar and Reliance [Get Quote] 10 per cent each while financial institutions hold 30 per cent.

PIL has two more JV companies, Petronet CI Ltd and Petronet CTM, which have failed to take off the respective pipeline projects.

The company has assets worth about Rs 1,058 crore (Rs 10.58 billion) and invested Rs 95.34 crore (Rs 953.4 million) as of March 2004.

It had posted a net loss of Rs 4.38 crore (Rs 43.8 million) last fiscal.

Currently, PIL has three pipelines under operation -- the Kochi-Coimbatore, Mangalore-Hassan-Bangalore and Vadnar-Kandla pipeline project. Two pipeline projects under