Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Jun 10, 2004 |
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Corporate
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Announcements ASPET converts debentures to equity shares of Rs 10 each
Kohinoor Mandal
Kolkata , June 9 SOUTH Asian Petrochem Ltd, which has set up the country's largest PET resin plant at Haldia in West Bengal, has converted its debentures into equity shares. The debentures issued by ASPET, as the company is popularly called, were worth Rs 100 each and came along with its initial public offering (IPO) of equity in December 2001. South Asian Petrochem is promoted by the Kolkata-based Dhunseri Group, a leading player in the tea industry. The other major companies of the group are Dhunseri Tea & Industries, Jaipur Polyspin and Tezpore Tea. Mr C.K. Dhanuka, main promoter holding the post of Vice-Chairman and Managing Director in ASPET, confirmed that the fully convertible debentures had been converted into equity shares of Rs 10 each. Apart from the Dhunseri Group, the West Bengal Government (through WBIDC or the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation) is also a co-promoter of the project. The total cost of the PET plant was pegged at Rs 450 crore. Of this, the promoters and the co-promoters chipped in Rs 115.5 crore as equity while Rs 74.50 crore was offered to the public. The offering comprised 50 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each and Rs 69.50 lakh debentures. Funds were also raised through term loans from IDBI, IFCI and Exim Bank. These were two-year debentures and carried an interest of 14 per cent per annum payable half yearly. On the completion of the two-year period in December 2003, these debentures had been converted to equity shares, sources said. The ASPET stock is listed on the BSE and the CSE. The rating agency ICRA had assigned fcAAA (SO) rating to the instrument. The agency, however, had withdrawn the rating recently as the debentures have been converted. Incidentally, of the proposed issue, FCDs aggregating Rs 69.5 crore (excluding FCDs subscribed by the core promoters and WBIDC) were offered to the public; these FCDs were assigned Triple-A ratings by both Crisil and CARE. Crisil, incidentally, had stated that the rating indicates highest safety with regard to timely payment of interest. After the conversion of the debentures, the promoters' stake in the company has dropped to 55.97 per cent. WBIDC holds approximately five per cent and the remaining 39 per cent is held by the public. It may be mentioned here that the capacity of the plant, which incidentally is a 100 per cent export oriented unit, is 1.4 lakh tonnes per annum. The project went on stream in September last year. During the quarter September-December 2003-04, the company recorded a profit before depreciation and tax of Rs 2.69 crore on a net sales turnover of Rs 203.72 crore.
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