Dunlop Brass Meets Bankers, Seeks Rs 110-Crore Infusion

The top brass of Dunlop India Ltd, in a meeting with its consortium bankers, pressed for an immediate infusion of Rs 110 crore through working capital term loan and bridge loan. The management felt that the loan is essential for the company's factories to resume production, and enable the company to turn around operations.

The company representatives also said that given the funds, the company would be able to stage a turnaround within 18 months. The consortium bankers, who have recently received the revival package that Dunlop had earlier presented to West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta, said that they would get back to the company at the earliest, after studying the proposals put forward in the revival plan.

The senior management team, led by managing director P J Rao, met representatives of the United Bank of India, SBI, Federal Bank Ltd, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Catholic Syrian Bank, Hong Kong Bank, Allahabad Bank and Standard Chartered bank.

The management representatives also laid emphasis on the fact that the company's current cash crunch is a direct result of the capping of its borrowing limits at Rs 38 crore. The meeting between the management and the consortium bankers took place at Dunlop House, Calcutta, at the instance of Asim Dasgupta. The finance minster had asked for further clarification regarding inter-corporate transfer of funds, and the last ten years' audited reports of the company.

It has been further learnt from union sources that the government might convene a tripartite meeting involving representatives from both the union and the management sometime this week.

Further, in a letter to the additional labour commissioner, Naren Das, senior vice president (marketing) S Badrinathan made it clear that the company was not keen to attend a tripartite meeting.