Six oil giants in the race to buy a stake in Haldia Petro
Kolkata   11-Jun-2013

Six major companies — Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), IndianOil, Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Essar Oil and Cairn India — have evinced interest in buying off the stake of the Bengal government in embattled Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), the joint venture between the state government and The Chatterjee Group (TCG).

The state government has floated an expression of interest (EoI) for the sale of its little-over-40% stake in HPL, the last day for which was Monday. It was on the final day that these companies emerged as interested parties.

HPL chairman and state industries minister Partha Chatterjee confirmed the development.

Interestingly, the expression of interest may trigger a new chapter in the controversial company. Purnendu Chatterjee-promoted TCG has already cautioned prospective investors.

In fact, last month, TCG published an advertisement cautioning probable bidders interested in purchasing the state government’s stake in HPL.

“This is to give notice that any person submitting an expression of interest for the purchase of/purchasing the aforesaid 675 million shares, is doing so subject to all existing rights of CPMC (Chatterjee Mauritius Company)/CPCL (Chatterjee Petrochem India) under various agreements with GoWB/ WBIDC and entirely at their own risk and peril,” the advertisement said.