Basell deal: HPL gets Rs 1,500-cr assurance

KOLKATA: Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) has obtained letters of intent (LoIs) from banks expressing their willingness to fund HPL''s equity participation in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) floated by the TCG-led consortium to buy Basell.
Sources said HPL has sanction from its lenders to chip in with Rs 1,500 crore in the SPV. At the empowered committee meeting of the lenders in Mumbai on May 13, 2005, TCG chairman Purnendu Chatterjee had reportedly placed the LoIs before the committee for its record.
Talking to TOI from Mumbai, Chatterjee admitted having received LoIs from bankers.However, he refused to divulge names. All that Chatterjee said was that "Some of them are the existing major term lenders of HPL".
And, major term lenders of HPL include IDBI, IFCI, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Allahabad Bank among others.
Chatterjee, however, clarified that the necessary tie-ups for the Rs 1,500-crore corpus are under process. He refused to stipulate a time frame, at this juncture, for the process to be completed.
Buoyed by HPL''s lenders allowing the company...
... to participate in the Basell deal, Chatterjee was hopeful that the HPL board will also ratify the proposal.
The board has representatives of the West Bengal government, a principal shareholder of HPL. There are indications that the matter will be discussed at the next board meeting of the company.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the lenders have pegged an investment ceiling of Rs 1,500 crore for HPL in case of Basell.
On May 8, ToI had first reported that lenders will allow HPL to participate in the Basell deal. The company received the green signal from its lenders on May 13.
The lenders have made it clear that they would not allow any dilution of securities of HPL.
Sources said at the last empowered committee meet, almost all lenders were aggressive to have a share of HPL''s pie by increasing exposure. Though the company had indicated to pre-pay some of its lenders, HPL was persuaded not to close the accounts.