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Even Mr Purnendu Chatterjee could not recollect when was the last time he addressed the press, as he did on Monday, for the joint venture Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL).
The co-promoter of what was once dubbed as the State's showcase project had long been busy fighting a boardroom battle, which had eventually rolled over to the court-rooms over the ‘control' with the other major promoter — the erstwhile Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharyya-led West Bengal Government.
The latter favoured including IndianOil as the driver of the company, and had even issued new shares of Rs 150 crore.
Though the “legal position remains the same” (with the promoters fighting a case in the Supreme Court), Mr Chatterjee claims that there is a “change in the climate” after Ms Mamata Banerjee assumed power.
The thawing of the relationship is apparent, and The Chatterjee Group (TCG) can put its best foot forward in the new “air of collaboration”.
Settlement
So should the two promoters mitigate their differences, may be, through an out of court settlement? According to Mr Chatterjee, left to him, the differences could be buried immediately.
Mr Chatterjee is hopeful that the new Government is also working in the best interest of the company: “Otherwise why should they (State) engage us (TCG) in dialogue,” he asks before rushing for a meeting with the State Chief Secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh.
He has just proposed to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for promotion of three more poly-parks to ensure creation of more processing industries and a ready market for HPL's products.
The aim is to scale up its market share in the East from 20 per cent to 50 per cent. But most importantly, he has a Rs 4,000-crore plan to promote eight-odd new projects in HPL itself to shore up margins. A solution to the ownership issues is a pre-requisite to secure finances to such projects.
Dire state
Sources suggest that the standalone petrochemical unit could hardly manage to stay afloat with a wafer-thin margin and over Rs 2,500 crore of debt. Living without the back-end support of a refinery, the company's margins have been hit since imposition of a 5 per cent import duty on naphtha a year back. To add to the woes, the previous State Government had withdrawn the concessions over sale of motor-spirit by the company.
HPL confirms that it is incurring losses for at least two years now and is taking short-term loans to fulfil the interest payment commitments.
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