Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Jul 01, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Jul 01, 2002 |
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Corporate
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Performance Haldia Petro staring down the debt barrel Indrani Dutta
KOLKATA, June 30 THE chances of the beleaguered petrochemical company Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) clearing, by June 30, its Rs 106-crore dues to term lenders now seem remote. Consequently, the fear of being declared a non-performing asset (NPA) by banks and financial institutions looms large before the joint venture company, which was being showcased by the State Government as its icon for industrial resurgence. After a lenders' meet held here, an FI representative said: "We will strictly abide by the prudential norms laid down by the Reserve Bank of India as regards declaration of a loan portfolio as an NPA''. HPL sources, however, hoped that the IDBI-led consortium would swing into action. Leading a hand-to-mouth existence, the country's newest petrochem plant shoulders an unplanned debt burden of over Rs 4,000 crore, which has led to an over Rs 500-crore payout on term loan interests annually. HPL's lenders — who have before them a restructuring proposal on which they have not yet taken any decision pending the resolution of issues involving the entry of Indian Oil Corporation — were also sore that the promoters were not directly participating in the dialogue. "We made presentations before the lenders, sharing our operational status as well as our expectations from the market which was now moving towards an upswing'', a HPL top management said adding that although the cash-strapped company had been irregular with its interest payments (on term loans), it had now managed "somehow'' to make the payments within the stipulated time to prevent becoming a NPA. The payment for the quarter ending March'02 was made out of the working capital kitty, sources said, adding that this was not possible in this quarter, when prices were ruling at low levels. They said that raw material was flowing freely from IOC as well as imported sources and HPL had been operating at nearly 80 per cent of its present capacity (of 4.66 lakh tpa). However, although HPL's sales volumes were good, collections had stagnated because of depressed prices, they admitted.
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