By IANS,
Kolkata: India’s second largest polyethylene maker, Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), which is currently facing a severe financial crisis, can be revived only if the promoters resolve the ongoing dispute over the company’s majority shareholding, a company director said Tuesday.
“I think the problem has been the quarrel between the promoters. HPL has to get over that and that is the only way that the company can go ahead. The local administration has to co-operate with the management in maintaining the law and order situation in the region,” Godrej & Boyce chairman Jamshyd N. Godrej told reporters on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta.
Godrej is an independent director on the board of HPL, co-promoted by the West Bengal government.
The major stakeholders of the cash-starved company — The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and the West Bengal government — are trying to sort out the dispute over the majority shareholding.
The Supreme Court had recently dismissed the TCG petition against the decision of the Calcutta High Court, setting aside a Company Law Board directive asking the state government to exit the project by selling its stake to TCG.
The company’s expansion plans are also on a slow track as the shareholding pattern is not clear yet.
Purnendu Chatterjee, the chairman of TCG, had recently announced a Rs.4,000 crore investment plan in eight different projects, over a period of three to three and a half years.