The Hindu Business Line : Chatterjee group to pump in Rs 200 cr more into HPL

THE Chatterjee group is set to pump in additional equity of Rs 200 crore into Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) thus kicking off the corporate debt restructuring process of the three-way joint venture company.

The equity infusion is likely to come in two tranches of Rs 143 crore and Rs 57 crore and Mr Purnendu Chatterjee of TCG has already visited the State secretariat and held discussions with the State Government in this regard.

Dr Sabyasachi Sen, Industries and Commerce Secretary, told Business Line that the first instalment of the equity would flow in soon. He said this would be part of the Rs 600-crore fresh equity asked for by the lenders' consortium.

As per the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) completed on January 22, of the Rs 600-crore equity infusion, Rs 332 crore was slated to come from GAIL (India) Ltd in two instalments with the remaining coming either through a public issue or through a mix of IPO and equity infusion by Mr Chatterjee who holds equity in HPL through Chatterjee Petrochem Mauritius. The State Government holds its equity through West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation with the Tatas also holding a minority share.

Post-restructuring, HPL's paid-up capital is slated to increase to Rs 2,000 crore from Rs 1,153 crore now.

While GAIL, in the absence of requisite clearances, has not been able to meet the deadline of March 31, 2004 for putting in the first instalment of Rs 132 crore, (and becoming HPL's fourth equity holder), the CDR process had slowed down in the absence of any money flowing in. The nitty gritty of the shareholders agreement between GAIL and HPL is now being worked out.

On the debt side, the CDR offered HPL an interest reprieve of 10.5 per cent which translated to an annual saving of Rs 120 crore on the Rs 540 crore outgo that the petrochemical company suffers on account of debt servicing.

However, this saving too is conditional on individual lending institutions signing agreements to this effect with HPL. Dr Sen said that this was taking time since there were over 40 lenders involved. "I am certain that things will fall into place soon," he said.

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