Ratan Tata, Jamshyd Godrej To Be Inducted In Haldia Petrochem Board

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Kolkata, July 20: Ratan Tata and Jamshyd Godrej will be inducted on the board of Rs 6,000-crore Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) in August as independent directors, according to the chairman of the company, Tarun Das.

The company, which is set to report a maiden Rs 100 crore net profit for the 2003-04 fiscal, will restart its negotiations with GAIL (India) for bringing in Rs 320 crore equity and is likely to go in for an initial public offering (IPO) before the end of the 2004 calendar year.

“HPL has a clear-cut, step-by-step roadmap to IPO,” Mr Das told FE after coming out of the board meeting of the company here on Tuesday.

First, it would complete the process of corporate debt restructuring on July 31, the date set by a consortium of lenders led by Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI). To ensure it, Purnendu Chatterjee has agreed to pump in Rs 143 crore fresh equity in the company this month to fulfil the conditions of CDR. Dr Chatterjee, a non-resident Indian, is the chairman of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), a major promoter of HPL.

Following this equity infusion, TCG’s stake in HPL will go up to around 50 per cent. At present, both TCG and West Bengal Industrial Development Corp (WBIDC) have 43 per cent stake each in the company and the remaining 14 per cent are with the Tatas.

Second, once HPL gets the IDBI letter for CDR completion, it would restart negotiation with GAIL in August to secure Rs 320 crore equity from this government-owned gas major.

Third, apart from inducting Mr Tata and Mr Godrej, discussions will be initiated with some other industry captains to strengthen the HPL board further.

Mr Das said both Mr Tata and Mr Godrej have agreed to join the board in August and talks would also be initiated with Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy.