Irbi Exposure In Haldia Petro Dpg At Rs 40 Crore

The Industrial Reconstruction Bank of India (IRBI) has picked up an exposure of Rs 40 crore in the Rs 520-crore deferred payment guarantee for Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.

For the Calcutta-based FI, which has traditionally played nursemaid to sick BIFR -referred companies, this is the largest-ever non-fund based assistance offered by it for any single project. It has joined the IDBI-led consortium consisting of the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India and the Industrial Finance Corporation of India.

While the ICICI and the IFCI have pledged Rs 170 crore each, IDBI s guarantee extends up to Rs 180 crore. According to sources, this amount is not immediately required for the project and may be converted to some other form in the future.

 

The exposure has been picked up just before the IDBI nominee for the project, G Goswami, took over as chairman of IRBI.

Interestingly, there is a big question mark as to who will be the next IDBI nominee on the HPL board, now that Goswami has been transferred from the post of chief general manager, IDBI, to chairman, IRBI.FI sources say no decision in this regard has yet been taken. Goswami assumed his new charge on December 31, 1996.

Goswami was appointed director on the HPL board from June 1990 on the recommendation of the then IDBI chairman, S S Nadkarni.

The project has been given the DPG of Rs 520 crore against suppliers credit from Exim Bank of Japan of Rs 453 crore only recently and the zero date has been fixed at January 31.

The HPL board and the FIs consortium are presently ironing out details of the public issue for the project. Sources say that since the total amount to be picked up from the capital market comes to a whopping Rs 700-crore-plus figure, they are in the process of devising suitable mechanisms to mop up this amount.

The amount, say sources will be collected in more than one tranche and there are plans to raise substantial amounts by way of debentures from the capital markets.

Also on the drawing board are plans to finalise finances for the downstream projects which have yet to be tied up.

Some of the alternatives are direct deferred payment guarantees, foreign currency loans and buying of foreign exchange.

While the total borrowals for the Rs 5,200-crore project may exceed Rs 2,000 crore, the foreign exchange requirement has been satisfied to the extent of Rs 453 crore as suppliers credit in a combined arrangement with Exim-J, Toyo Corporation and Mitsubishi Chemicals.