Tata, TCG against IOC entry into HPCL

IOC chairman M A Pathan, who met the Chief Minister yesterday, had reiterated the company’s interest in joining the petrochemicals project. IOC has reportedly evinced interest to infuse about Rs 500 crore as equity stake in the project.

While the state government was in favour of taking IOC as a fourth promoter, there was apparent disagreement with the other two on the nature of the company’s participation.

An investment to the scale of Rs 500 crore by IOC would make the company the majority stake holder in the project, which may create problems with TCG and the Tatas, holding 22 per cent and eight per cent equity respectively.

There was also apparent disagreement on the conditions laid down by IOC to make the naphtha cracker plant of HPL a separate entity. Currently, both the the state government and TCG hold a stake of Rs 433 crore each while Tata’s stake is Rs 140 crore.

The proposed paid-up equity of the three promoters in the project was initially kept at Rs 1,979 crore, but there was a shortfall of about Rs 970 crore, which was taken as bridge loan from IDBI.

The five-member committee comprising three promoters along with IDBI and IOC. Asked to comment on the proceedings of the four-hour long meeting, Bhattacharjee refused to divulge any detail. The other promoters, Tata and Chatterjee were also tight-lipped.

State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, who was present, said "we discussed about Haldia but nothing can be said until we reach a consensus."