Drt Appoints Receiver To Sell Spic Petro Assets

The Mumbai Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) last week passed an order for the appointment of a court receiver to sell the assets of SPIC Petrochemicals, the AC Muthiah group company. The order provides interim relief based on an ICICI Bank application filed with the DRT in January.

SPIC officials were not available for comments.

SPIC Petro, promoted by SPIC Ltd (the flagship company of the A C Muthaiah group), was recently served a loan recall notice by ICICI Bank. ICICI Bank had recalled loans worth Rs 289 crore in December 2002 and subsequently filed a legal suit at DRT, Mumbai, as the company did not pay the dues. The DRT suit sought an order for the enforcement of the security.

The total outstanding dues of SPIC Petro to the lenders were over Rs 1,100 crore. The consortium of lenders includes ICICI Bank, Industrial Development Bank of India, State Bank of India, Dena Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank and Union Bank of India.

The company has been trying to implement a project to manufacture paraxylene (PX), PTA and polyester filament yarn. The project has been stalled since March 1997 by litigation between SPIC Ltd and Madras Refineries Ltd. SPIC had originally entered into an MOU in 1989 with Madras Refineries