Hindusthan Pilkington Assets Sold

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The assets and land of Hindusthan Pilkington Glass Works (HPG) situated at Grand Trunk Road (NH2), Asansol, West Bengal, was sold to Choudury Udyog Pvt Ltd at an offer of Rs 3 crore in a high court auction.

The unit was sold on an as-is-where-is basis. The highest bid price of Rs 3 crore was well below the valuation made by the court appointed valuer.

Since no bidders came with higher price, city-based trader K K Singhania's Choudury Udyog was declared successful by justice R K Mitra.

After court's confirmation, Singhania indicated that the property would be utilised for housing purposes.

The employees union did not raise any objection to the sale.

After 17 years in liquidation, the sale of the HPG property as scrap and not as a going concern ended years of hope that a new industrial unit would come up there.

During sixties, HPG was a premier glass manufacturing unit of international repute. The West Bengal-based company went into liquidation in 1985.

In 1990, in a high court auction, the Mittals-owned Ispat group purchased the unit at a price of Rs 8.75 crore as a going concern, but the Supreme Court set aside the sale and directed the Calcutta High Court to re-auction.

A new valuer was appointed by the court who assessed the value of the assets, machinery and land of HPG above Rs 4 crore. But at the auction no offer crossed this price.

Bank of Baroda, the main banker of the company, prayed for time to confirm the offer from higher officials.

The court was ready to adjourn the auction subject to the bank finding out a bidder with higher offer. The bank could not make this commitment. The court then passed the order of confirmation.