Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation has decided to sell off practically all its assets except the urea plant for a consideration of “not less than Rs 300 crore”. However, the price may be adjusted for liabilities, the company said in a notification to the stock exchanges today.
The company board on Wednesday approved a proposal to sell its sulphuric and phosphoric acid plants, DAP, NKP, SSP and aluminium fluoride plants.
This move was rather expected because the buzz in the market was that the company's main creditor, the Asset Reconstruction Company of India Ltd (ARCIL), had been putting pressure on the promoters to infuse funds. ARCIL is a trader in bad loans, and the debt aggregator holds 82 per cent of Rs 2,845 crore of SPIC loans that it bought from various banks.
For at least a year now, SPIC's promoters, the family of Dr A C Muthiah, had been on a sell-off binge. Apart from raising about Rs 160 crore by selling off some personal real estate, SPIC's promoters have sold stakes in group companies Sical Logistics and Manali Petrochemicals.
SPIC itself has sold several pieces of real estate and its stake in ventures such as Technip. It recently sold off its engineering division, SMO. Sources say that the urea plant has been operating for over six months now, with naphtha supplied by IOC.