Haldia Petrochemicals in yet another financial mess

About Rs 133 cr payment is due on September 30

While lenders are shying away, Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) has to find its way out of yet another financial puzzle by September 30.

For HPL, about Rs 133 crore payment is due on September 30. “Out of this, Rs 30 crore due to SBI as the promoters had taken a loan for external commercial borrowing (ECB) in 2008. Nearly Rs 35 crore insurance premium without which a company like HPL cannot run and Rs 68 crore principal payment is also due. We have to find a way out of this,” said Sumantra Chowdhury, HPL managing director.

Due to the global financial situation and its impact on the market, HPL is also sitting on a stock of 28 kilo tonne. “This is equivalent to Rs 250 crore. The ideal stock limit is 13 KT and even 15 KT is tolerable, but 28 KT is unacceptable. We are trying to sell this stock immediately to pay back this Rs 133 crore,” Chowdhury said, after the firm’s annual general meeting here.

When asked about this, Partha Chatterjee, the state industries and commerce minister and also the chairman of HPL, said, “We have written a letter to the lenders and the firm management had meeting with both IDBI and SBI. We are asking them to give some money, at least Rs 500 crore now.”

HPL was looking to raise an additional Rs 1,000 crore credit line for working capital. Acording to sources, all the other lenders except IDBI and SBI are shying away from the firm. The major lenders of the company include IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, IFCI, PNB, SBI, Allahabad Bank and Union Bank of India.

Recently, IDBI had demanded conversion of Rs 60 crore debt into equity, on which the firm’s board is yetr to take a decision. Earlier this year, the firm’s board had cleared a proposal in order to save itself from reporting to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) as a potentially sick company by converting Rs 128 crore debt into equity at par basis, through which lenders got an 8 per cent stake in the firm.