Chowdhury was appointed as MD on June 19, 2012, replacing Partha Bhattacharya for a period of one year, according to sources in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL). Since the West Bengal government was on course to divest its stake held through the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), Chowdhury was likely to get an extension as it would be difficult to find a replacement for the short time, sources said.
Post disinvestment of the government's stake in HPL, the new entity to buy out the WBIDC's stake will become the majority shareholder in the company, and it is likely that the new incumbent for the post will be appointed by it.
The government had appointed consultancy firm Deloitte for inviting expressions of interest from interested bidders against which six firms, three from the public sector (ONGC, Indian Oil and GAIL) and three from the private sector (RIL, Cairn India and Jindal Petroleum) had evinced interest.
Other promoter The Chatterjee Group would be offered to exercise the first right of refusal for matching the highest bid, failing which the stake would be offloaded to the highest bidder.