The Hindu Business Line : Petition filed by losing consortium

The Rs 1,000-crore Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (NMSEZ) project that had its financial closure about a week ago, has been slapped with a writ petition in the Bombay High Court on September 23. This followed a report in the media on September 22 that Reliance Industries was set to acquire sizeable stake in the promoter company, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, for a consideration of Rs 1,000 crore.

The writ petition, filed by Anik Development Corporation, Gammon India and others has pleaded that the project be re-tendered. Among the reasons cited for demanding re-tendering are charges that SKIL is doing trading and not development. For this, the petition cites the media report of September 22 on Reliance plans to buy into the SEZ project by acquiring majority stake in SKIL.

The case is expected to come up for hearing on Thursday. The petition has named Government of Maharashtra, City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) and Navi Mumbai SEZ Company as defendants.

The writ petition seeking re-tendering of the SEZ comes 20 months after Cidco had awarded the project to SKIL at Rs 67 lakh a hectare in December 2003.

There is speculation in the real estate industry as to the timing of the petition after all milestones were achieved.

A consortium led by the petitioners had come second in the bid at Rs 51 lakh a hectare. The SEZ project has a total size of 4,388 hectares. This puts the difference between the two bids at Rs 702 crore.

SKIL consortium has said in the past that its offer was worth Rs 1,000 crore more to State Government, over a period of 10 years.

NMSEZ Company, the special purpose vehicle set up to execute the project, had achieved financial closure on September 20 with a 2:1 debt-equity ratio. A consortium of lenders led by IDBI will contribute the debt component of Rs 660 crore. The other lenders include ICICI, IL&FS and Hudco. Master plan for the project has almost been completed by Singapore Government company Jurong Town Corporation.

It is reliably learnt that IDBI has sanctioned Rs 500 crore. Of the debt portion finance, guarantee for as much as Rs 246 crore has already been released to Cidco in June.

The NMSEZ Company has already signed the development agreement and shareholders agreement with Cidco and has paid about Rs 300 crore as land premium for the first lot of 450 hectares in the NMSEZ project.

The present equity pattern in NMSEZ is as follows: SKIL and affiliates - 52 per cent; Cidco - 26 per cent; other associate promoters - 22 per cent.

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