Indian Oil Corporation has renewed its interest in acquiring a controlling stake in Haldia Petrochemicals with the tacit support of the lead bankers of the company, as per The Telegraph.
State Bank of India and IDBI Bank have called a meeting on January 7 in Mumbai with the two leading promoters of HPL -the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and The Chatterjee Group (TCG) - to discuss IOC’s proposal, among others. The development comes at a time the Bengal government has decided to sell its stake in HPL through an auction. Deloitte has been appointed as the transaction adviser for the entire bid process. IOC is understood to be keen on a negotiated deal with the promoters of Haldia Petro against competing with other players in auction. Indian Oil already has an 8.89% stake in HPL by virtue of a Rs 150 crore investment made in 2004.
Inadequate working capital, despite best efforts of the present management, has forced the company to operate at 50% of the installed capacity, resulting in huge losses. According to an estimate, Haldia Petro has piled up nearly Rs 1,000 crore of accumulated losses.
02-Jan-13 
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