The West Bengal government has responded in a positive manner to the ailing Metal Box India Ltd (MBIL) management's request for extending soft loans worth Rs 5 crore for reopening its No 1 factory in Calcutta.
"We have approached the state governments of Tamil Nadu and Haryana for similar support but so far the West Bengal government's response has been most encouraging" MBIL chairman and managing director Vinod Krishna told Business Standard.
Referring to the Rs 20 crore difference in the valuation reports of the company's Worli property submitted by Batliboi & Co and HDFC, Krishna said, "The HDFC report was based on generalities and hence any rehabilitation package based on it would be unworkable."
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The two independent valuers, Batliboi & Co and HDFC, were appointed by the MBIL operating agency, Industrial Credit & Investment Corporation of India (ICICI).
The value of the Worli property by the two agencies were pegged at Rs 43.39 crore and Rs 64.48 crore respectively. The price of the Worli property is central to MBIL's rehabilitation package.
On the basis of the Batliboi valuation report, the MBIL management has submitted a reworked package of Rs 104.13 crore in July, 1998.
"We had not based our report on the HDFC report because despite the lower price tag on the Worli property by Batliboi & Co there are few takers for the MBIL property," he said.
"The HDFC report is unrealistic since the MBIL property is not marketable due to many factors like litigation and the equipment lying in the premises etc," Vinod Krishna. The MBIL management has no problem if the banks and FI s take in consideration the HDFC package, he said. He suggested the banks and FI s, if they thought to be the HDFC price to be realistic, could go ahead and bail out the company by taking possession of the property.
MBIL operating agency ICICI had convened a meeting with the banks and financial institutions on Wednesday to work out a solution on an agreed updation of the scheme. "There were some positive response but no consensus could be reached on all aspects of the scheme," Krishna said.
The updated scheme of the management seemed to have been acceptable to the banks and FI s in general and that ICICI needed to fine-tune it further.