Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd bid may turn out to be infructuous, says IOC

05-Feb-14

Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) bid for buying out West Bengal government's stake in ailing Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd may turn out to be infructuous, a senior company official in PTI. IOC has written to the WBIDC, an arm of the West Bengal government, for a discussion on the state of affairs on HPL including a dialogue with TCG. But the new minister Amit Mitra has not yet communicated. There is a need for a corrective action soon as the company is suffering losses each day, resulting the bid turning out to be null and void. IOC emerged as the sole bidder for 675 million shares of WBIDC in HPL and quoted a price of Rs 25.10 per share way back in October 2013. TCG had moved the court over the disputed 155 million shares and the Supreme Court had also allowed it to take the matter to Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce for arbitration. Meanwhile, lenders had extended a loan of Rs 100 crore to HPL. The HPL board had also approved a rights issue amounting to Rs 1,300 crore to tide over the funds crunch.