The fate of the Rs 5170 crore Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) project was discussed in detail at a marathon board meeting of the company in which three promoters - the West Bengal government, The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and Tata Sons - participated to resolve the crisis.
However, as expected, there were no dramatic developments or announcements at the meeting.
TCG chairman, Purnendu Chatterjee, said: "It was a good meeting. We are working together to put HPL on a strong position."
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Repeating what he said on Thursday, Chatterjee stated that a plan to overcome the problems faced by the project would be chalked out in 45 days and the plant will be put back on rails.
"A total package is being planned for revival of the company involving the shareholders," HPL chairman Tapan Mitra said after the board meeting, which lasted nearly four hours.
Mitra, however, did not comment on various critical issues pertaining the project and said, "we had a very good meeting and managed to resolve all problems."
He also refused to comment on whether the IOC's participation in the company was discussed during the meeting.
However, it is learnt that the board discussed all the major issues, including debt restructuring, progress on negotiation with IOC and possible infusion of funds by existing promoters.
HPL, which had started commercial production only on August 1, 2001, has been reeling under a huge debt burden and was in urgent need of funds to retire high-cost debt.
HPL has a total debt burden of Rs 4,000 crore with interest outgo of nearly Rs 500 crore every year.
The Tata representative on HPL board, F A Vandrewala of Tata Steel, remained non-committal on the issue after the board meeting and only said, "There was no talk about the Tata stake in HPL during the meeting."
IDBI nominee on HPL board H K Khan said, "the management will submit a proposal for restructuring the company's debt. We are confident that the company will do well."
Incidentally, IDBI has a huge exposure of about Rs 900 crore in HPL and was one of the largest lenders to the project.
The project has only Rs 1010 crore of equity contribution from the three promoters till date with the total debt running to more than Rs 4000 crore.