Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurating the Plasticscope 2004 in Calcutta on Thursday. Also present were CII (ER) chairman Sanjay Budhia (centre) and Indian Plastics Federation president J. C. Agarwal. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Feb. 26: Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) is all set to post its maiden profit this fiscal.

“This year, HPL will declare a post-tax profit, its first-ever since commercial production started in August 2001. The financial restructuring package is in place and expansion plans are on. We are also working on ways to increase our profitability,” CEO Swapan Bhowmik said at the Plastiscope 2004 organised by the Indian Plastics Federation.

As part of the debt restructuring package, the lenders have decided to reduce the interest rate on rupee loans from 14.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent, Bhaumik said. This way HPL will save Rs 75-80 crore annually. The debt restructuring package is effective from April 1, 2003, and in the current year the company will be able to save this amount due to lowering of interest rates.

The Reserve Bank’s corporate debt recast cell has allowed HPL to implement the package over a period of 15 years.

On plans for the initial public offer (IPO), Bhowmik said the company is working out modalities for the offering. “We signed the debt restructuring proposal on January 22, 2004. According to the agreement, we have to come out with the IPO within the next six months. We would like to tap the market within May-June,” he said.

He said the size of the book-built IPO has not yet been decided. “However, Purnendu Chatterjee of The Chatterjee Group, one of the main promoters, has agreed to underwrite the unsubscribed portion of the IPO,” Bhowmik added.

The TCG chief has promised to infuse Rs 268 crore as fresh equity in the company. According to the debt restructuring package, the promoters have to inject fresh equity of Rs 600 crore.

Plastics promise

Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will meet Union commerce minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the problems faced by the plastics industry due to free import of finished plastics goods from Nepal.

He was addressing the members of the Indian Plastics Federation at Plastiscope 2004.