The HPL board on Friday cleared a proposal for preliminary notification to the BIFR.
According to Partha Chatterjee, State Commerce and Industry Minister, a preliminary notification will be made to the Board For Industrial Reconstruction following a partial erosion in the networth of HPL.
“There has been a partial erosion of the networth. And the board has taken a decision to make a preliminary notification to the BIFR,” he said following an extraordinary general meeting of the HPL board.
According to him, the board will take all necessary steps to protect HPL from BIFR.
Citing legal complications, he did not mention the possible steps that HPL would take to save itself from BIFR.
However, he maintained that the company would meet prospective lenders at a later date.
New MD
Meanwhile, the board has cleared a proposal for the extension of U.K. Basu’s term as Managing Director.
Basu, whose term expires in December, will now serve as the MD till March 2014.
Purnendu Chatterjee: Net worth fully eroded
According to Purnendu Chatterjee, Chairman, The Chatterjee Group, the networth of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd has been “fully eroded”.
However, there is no point in sending the company to BIFR, he added.
”Ideally, HPL should not be sent to the BIFR. It is not the way out,” Chatterjee said, adding that no additional loans were available for HPL.
Asked specifically if an alternate proposal has been given to revive HPL, Chatterjee said: “Our Rs 500-crore proposal for revival is pending and can be looked into.”
He was speaking to presspersons following HPL's board meeting at the West Bengal industry department headquarters.
Chatterjee in an earlier meeting had suggested that The Chatterjee Group (TCG) would bring in Rs 500-crore in lieu of management control in HPL.
A matching amount of Rs 400 crore by the lenders and another Rs 100 crore by the State Government would also be brought in to revive the ailing HPL.