Calcutta, July 27: The Chatterjee Group, promoted by NRI entrepreneur Purnendu Chatterjee, is set to acquire a majority stake in MCC PTA India (MCPI) from Japanese major Mitsubishi, as it prepares to build on the success of turning around Bengal's showpiece project Haldia Petrochemicals.

The deal, signalling a consolidation in the Indian chemical sector, is likely to be concluded by December after Mitsubishi wipes out the accumulated loss of MCPI and takes the company out of the BIFR to hand over a clean slate to Chatterjee.

The Japanese major will hold a 9 per cent stake following the restructuring and the induction of TCG, which will hold the rest. Bengal industry promotion arm WBIDC will hold a small stake (at present 5 per cent).

Speaking to The Telegraph, TCG chairman Purnendu Chatterjee said he was "humbled and honoured" to be associated with one of the largest chemical companies of the world - Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, the parent of MCPI.

"With the association of MCC and its expertise and technology, there is a possibility to develop more downstream chemical units at Haldia and turn it into a larger chemical complex in future," Chatterjee said.

Following the conclusion of the deal, TCG will own two major manufacturing companies in Bengal. Chatterjee now holds a majority stake in HPL, which he managed to turn into a profitable venture.

Sources said TCG will pay around $48 million (Rs 322 crore) in the first tranche for the deal and further payments would be made.

For Mitsubishi, it is a strategic call from Tokyo to exit the commodity chemical business and focus on value added products.

The company will completely offload the PTA business in China, selling the plant to an oil refiner in Ningbo. However, it will retain the Thailand facility that supplies to group firms and another unit in South Korea.

The Japanese major said it would make the Indian arm a zero-debt company after fresh infusion of additional capital. This will take place before the acquisition by TCG. This would enable MCPI to mitigate its debt servicing and depreciation liability, factors that had been affecting its profitability.

MCPI set up the plant to produce purified terephthalic acid (PTA), the raw material for polyester fibre and PET resin, at Haldia in 1997 at a total investment of around Rs 3,600 crore in two phases, making it one of the largest Japanese foreign direct investment in India.

The unit now has an installed capacity of 1.27 million tonnes with a turnover of around Rs 6,000 crore employing around 1,100 people.

However, owing to severe market conditions, MCPI became a "sick unit" in April 2013 and had subsequently been referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.

A sudden build-up of huge overcapacity in China since 2011 and a resultant dumping in the Indian market caused the prolonged slowdown in the PTA business, MCPI said in a statement.

However, the recent imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports from China, Thailand, Indonesia has improved the scenario to an extent.