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IOC chief meets Bengal CM on Haldia Petro -- TCG told to bring in funds within 15 days

Our Bureau

KOLKATA, Nov. 29

MR M.A. Pathan, Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), today met Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, West Bengal Chief Minister, and the Industry Minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, to discuss Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL).

However, neither Mr Bhattacharjee nor Mr Sen was willing to divulge details in this regard, beyond saying that the talks were positive. Mr Sen just added that Mr Purnendu Chatterjee of The Chatterjee Group (TCG) had been asked to pay up within 15 days, h is portion of the advance against equity that was decided to be injected into the HPL to help out the company overcome its present debt problem.

Of the Rs 500-crore proposed to be raised in this manner, in two equal tranches, the West Bengal Government and the Tatas have already contributed their portion. Mr Chatterjee is supposed to pay Rs 107 crore.

It may be mentioned in this context that the proposal made by IOC to invest in HPLs equity has been hanging fire for nearly six months now since the consultants KPMG Peat Marwick submitted their report on HPL in June this year. IOCs interest in HPL goes back even further.

Since July this year, negotiations have been going on between IOC and HPLs two principal promoters - the West Bengal Government and TCG. While these two have an equal holding of 43 per cent each, the Tatas, having a holding of 14 per cent have revealed t heir plans to exit from the company.

While the West Bengal Government has been looking forward to the entry of IOC as a white knight to bail out HPL from its present financial crisis, The Chatterjee Group has not been bubbling with enthusiasm over the proposal which envisages, among other t hings, management control of HPL. The proposal expires on November 30.

When contacted, a senior HPL board member said that in its present form, the proposal was totally unacceptable.