HPL share sale process stalled for the time being: Minister

KOLKATA: West Bengal government has stalled the process of selling its stake in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) for the time being due to various reasons like certain "irregularities", state Commerce and Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said today.

The state government's industry promotion arm WBIDC had appointed management consultancy firm Deloitte as advisor for the sale of its shares in HPL.

"Deloitte had been appointed as a transactional advisor for valuation of HPL's shares. But they wanted entire fees of Rs 3.5 crore for the job in advance, which we did not appreciate," Partha Chatterjee said here.

"The process is stalled for the time being as some irregularities in the process is also there," he added.

The state government had decided to quit HPL as a shareholder by June 30 this year.

Chatterjee said the consultancy firm was appointed to evaluate the shares of the company after which WBIDC would put its entire block of shareholding in HPL for auction.

Earlier, it was decided that TCG of Purnendu Chatterjee would be offered the shares at the highest price arrived at the auction to exercise its right of first refusal. If this was declined, it would be sold to the highest bidder.

Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC), which holds close to nine per cent stake in HPL, had also said it would wait till a clear picture emerged on the proposed sale of HPL stake held by West Bengal government.

By virtue of holding nearly 39 per cent shares in HPL, WBIDC was the majority shareholder in the company investing around Rs 835 crore.

HPL was operating at half of the installed capacity due to acute working capital crunch.