IBP & Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation, will invest Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion) in the current financial year to augment retailing strength of the oil marketing PSU.

IBP sources told PTI that the company, which set up 523 retail outlets across the country last year, will again open nearly 500 outlets this year, thus increasing the number to more than 2500.

Sources said that IBP had commissioned the highest number of retain outlets in the industry with a share of 49 per cent.

Explaining the rationale behind this rapid increase in the number of retain outlets, sources said that since the company was only thriving on marketing margins, increase in sales volumes will help it in realising better profits in the current year.

With the dismantling of Administered Price Mechanism in the hydrocarbons sector, the oil companies had not been able to realise the full impact of liberalisation as they were not allowed to recover the entire transportation cost involved in taking the petroleum products to retail outlets.

Last year, the company almost took a hit of around Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) due to this factor, which had its impact on the bottomline.