No change of guard

Calcutta, April 4: The Bengal government does not intend to dilute its stake in Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) now, a move that would have handed Purnendu Chatterjee of The Chatterjee Group control of the firm.

Company chairman Tarun Das discussed the future of HPL and the proposal put forward by Purnendu at a meeting with Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen today. Das refused to say what figured in his talks at the Writers? Buildings, except an oblique comment to the posse of waiting reporters to ?wait and watch.?

The Bengal government holds a 56 per cent stake in HPL, which has an equity of Rs 1,410 crore; Purnendu controls 41 per cent and the Tatas the remaining 3 per cent.

While Das left a trail of suspense behind, senior officials of the commerce and industry department said Purnendu?s proposal of taking management control was the high point of today?s huddle on the petrochemicals firm.

?The government has no immediate plan to dilute its stake,? one official familiar with the discussions added.

HPL?s entry into Basell, a Dutch petrochem company, was debated at the meeting, which was also attended by Dipankar Chatterjee of LB Jha, HPL?s adviser.

The government, sources say, wants to fix the price of HPL shares before it decides to cut its holding. Das said last month a consultant would be hired to compute the figure.

Bengal commerce and industry secretary Sabysachi Sen, also present at the meeting, refused to talk about it.

All he said was that Haldia Petro would issue shares to Indian Oil Corporation, the navratna oil PSU that has pumped in Rs 150 crore.

?We will issue shares to IOC soon. That is not a problem at all,? he said, adding the main concern of the state government was to maintain the pace of growth that the petrochemical firm racked up in the last financial year.

?We will do nothing which hampers the growth of the company. We do not want to go back to the time when HPL was on the verge of falling sick. It has done well in the last financial year. We, as the main shareholder, would like to see similar results this fiscal as well,? he said.

Sen said Haldia Petro?s maiden issue was discussed at its board meeting in Delhi last week. ?It is on our agenda and we will come out with the IPO at the right time,? he added.