State Govt unable to transfer shares in Haldia Petro as per Calcutta High Court orders

21-Nov-13

The Calcutta High Court has ordered status quo on transfer of 155 mln shares of Haldia Petrochemicals till further orders or November 26, as per Economic Times. Therefore, the state government may not be able to transfer these shares on November 22 as it had earlier planned, after Indian Oil emerged as the single bidder for a 39.99% stake at a price of Rs 25.10. Justice IP Mukerji fixed the matter for further hearing on November 25 and directed that status quo be maintained with respect to 155 million shares of HPL till November 26. The firm's private promoter, The Chatterjee Group (TCG), submitted that the Supreme Court had on November 1 prohibited the transfer of this chunk of shares for a period of three weeks. However, the final judgment is yet to be delivered. The promoter feared that the state government might transfer the shares after the expiry of three weeks, on November 22. HPL has scheduled a board meeting on November 22, when the main agenda is to transfer of shares of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) to the new owner. However, experts feel that following the single-bench order, it will not be possible for the HPL board to take a decision on share transfer. TCG had the right of first refusal of government shares in HPL. However, TCG wrote a letter to the state government last month, questioning the legal validity of selling 155 million shares along with the WBIDC stake that it felt belonged to the promoter group. It is yet to give any reply to the right of first refusal, although as per WBIDC, the last date was November 9. TCG has 41.07% stake in HPL while IOC has 8.89%. The state government planned to sell its 39.99% stake through the auction.