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Enron Mail |
BUSINESS STANDARD, Thursday, October 18, 2001
BSES moves ministry over Enron's stake in DPC, S Ravindran=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE ECONOMIC TIMES, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Maha to challenge London court order on DPC Similar story also appeared in the following publications: THE DECCAN CHRONICLE, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Maharashtra to move London court in a week THE DECCAN HERALD, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Mrashtra to move London court in Enron case THE HINDU, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Maharashtra to move London court in Enron case=20 THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Enron: Maharashtra to move London court in a week BUSINESS STANDARD, Thursday, October 18, 2001 State to appeal London court ruling on DPC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE HINDU, Thursday, October 18, 2001 NCP to be blamed (Letters to the Editor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE, Thursday, October 18, 2001 GAIL keen on Dabhol LNG terminal project, Balaji C. Mouli=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Govt rejects Coke's plea on waiving IPO=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ BUSINESS STANDARD, Thursday, October 18, 2001 BSES moves ministry over Enron's stake in DPC, S Ravindran=20 After a series of flip flops, power major BSES has formally communicated to= the Union government that it is interested in buying out Enron's stake in = the Dabhol Power Company (DPC). It has, however, added the now-familiar rid= er that the capital cost of the project should be brought down. BSES chairm= an and managing director R V Shahi said, "We have formally told the ministr= ies of power, finance and financial institutions Industrial Development Ban= k of India, ICICI and the State Bank of India that we are interested in the= project. The communication was despatched last Saturday." Shahi also said = that a financial re-engineering of the $3 billion, 2,184-mw power project w= as necessary so that the cost of power was affordable.=20 Analysts, however, queried the seriousness of BSES's intentions in view of = the various conflicting statements made earlier by Shahi. He has made publi= c statements that the company is interested in the project but has denied t= hem in communications to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Sources familiar with a= n earlier round of discussions with Enron say that BSES had offered to buy = the equity at a 90 per cent discount. This would have meant BSES paying onl= y around $120 million for the 85 per cent stake that Enron and its two US p= artners -- General Electric and Bechtel -- hold in the company. The three p= artners have so far invested around $1.2 billion in the project. Tata Power= managing director Adi J Engineer insisted that the company was still inter= ested in the Dabhol project. "We have not held any serious discussions on t= he issue in the last fortnight but discussions will resume shortly. There i= s no roadblock and the final outcome will depend upon the sacrifices willin= g to be made by all the stokeholders in the project," he said. Engineer ref= used to divulge further details. The lenders to the project have mooted a t= hree-pronged formula for the sale of power from the Dabhol power project. T= he entire power from the 740-mw first phase of the project should be bought= by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. Half the power from the 1,444-= mw second phase will be bought by the central government utility, National = Thermal Power Corporation, while the other half will be sold within Maharah= stra for which a dedicated region will be allotted to Tata Power.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE ECONOMIC TIMES, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Maha to challenge London court order on DPC THE MAHARASHTRA government has decided to challenge the injunction order is= sued by the commercial court in London restraining the state from filing su= its against the Dabhol Power Company (DPC) in India. The DPC had obtained t= he injunction on October11. "The state government has decided to challenge = the order as we feel that the concerned court should have heard the state a= s well. Within a week we would be presenting our case," the state chief min= ister Vilasrao Deshmukh said here on Wednesday. The ex-parte order relates = to arbitration proceedings between the state government and DPC with respec= t to state guarantee, state support and supplemental state support agreemen= ts. It prevented the state government from taking any legal action in India= , challenging the international arbitration proceedings initiated by DPC. M= r Deshmukh today also reiterated his government's resolve not to draw elect= ricity from DPC. "There is no logic in buying DPC power at higher rate and = selling it with much lower rates," Deshmukh said. According to Deshmukh, du= e to recent rainfall, the demand for electricity has gone down considerably= and the state electricity board is supplying power without interruption. M= eanwhile, the government today expressed its resolve to initiate a judicial= probe into the entire Enron deal. "The probe would begin in few weeks ," D= eshmukh said. The state has already requested the Chief Justice of the Mumb= ai High Court to appoint a judge for the probe.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE, Thursday, October 18, 2001 GAIL keen on Dabhol LNG terminal project, Balaji C. Mouli=20 GAS Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) has written to both the Petroleum Ministr= y and the Power Ministry evincing interest in the 5 million tonnes per annu= m (mmtpa) LNG regassification terminal of the Dabhol Power Company, accordi= ng to Government officials. In a recent communique to the two Ministries, i= t has asked the financial institutions to set up a meeting to enable it rev= iew the financial details of the LNG project. The financial data on the LNG= project solely rests with Bechtel, GE and Enron.As a first step towards ex= amining the financial data, GAIL will require to enter into a confidentiali= ty clause agreement with the present project sponsors to access the data. Meanwhile, the financial institutions are awaiting the results of political= parleys between the Centre and the Maharashtra Government towards bringing= the latter into a `solution finding' mode to implement a financial restruc= turing package and resolve the Dabhol crisis. Once this is done, the FIs wi= ll freeze the financial package - involving sacrifices undertaken by the pr= esent stakeholders - and again elicit market response towards bettering the= Tatas' proposition. Although the FIs had earlier scouted the market and fo= und only the Tatas evincing interest in the project, it would again offer t= he Dabhol project to the market to ensure that the concessions on the part = of the State are not awarded on a nomination basis.The foreign lenders have= pointed out that they would not be agreeable to the domestic FIs spearhead= ing the salvage operation finally resulting in transfer of ownership of the= power plant. Hence, the Government is mulling a high-level committee to im= plement the process leading to transfer of ownership.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE HINDU, Thursday, October 18, 2001 NCP to be blamed (Letters to the Editor) Sir, - Mr. Prem Shankar Jha's article `Dabhol and the do nothing Government= ' (Oct. 16) is interesting. The blame for the present situation should squa= rely rest on the NCP Government in Maharashtra. The Congress, to square poi= nts with Mr. Pawar, has created problems in implementing the second phase. = With 90 per cent work complete, it is not in the national interest to give = it up at this stage. It is time the Prime Minister devoted some attention t= o resolving the issue. The Centre should ask the NTPC to take over the resp= onsibility of running this unit by providing financial help. The Government= should sit with the DPC and settle for a final takeover and finish the wor= k and start generating power.=20 V.R. Rajamani,=20 Chennai=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------------ THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE, Thursday, October 18, 2001 Govt rejects Coke's plea on waiving IPO=20 Government said today that it would not accede to Coca-Cola's request for e= xemption from mandatory divestment of equity, as this would be tantamount t= o 'favouritism'. "It (the agreement signed between Coca-Cola and the govern= ment of India at the time of company's entry) won't be changed. They wanted= it to be changed, but this can't be for a particular company. It will amou= nt to favouritism," Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran told repo= rters here.Replying to a query at the Annual Economic Editors' Conference o= n whether government could reconsider Coca-Cola's proposal, he said "MoU no= rms are the same for everybody. These cannot be changed for one single comp= any. Mr Maran also dismissed dispute surrounding Enron's Dabhol Power project as= isolated, saying such cases were unlikely to affect Foreign Direct Investm= ent inflows into India. "Enron is only an isolated incident... There are ma= ny success stories on FDI front," Mr Maran said, adding even the Enron issu= e was not closed and negotiations were on to resolve the crisis. He said En= ron's Dabhol Power Project was financed by domestic institutions to the ext= ent of up to 80 per cent and this was a matter of concern for the country. = Government is yet to communicate its decision on the Coke's request for wai= ver of 49 per cent disinvestment from it Indian holding or alternatively a = five year moratorium till July, 2007. =20 Asked about reports that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had = allowed a moratorium, Industry Secretary Govindrajan told PTI "we have not = communicated any decision to the company so far." Coke has cited mounting l= osses, which have wiped out its networth by a whopping 66 per cent on Rs 3,= 200 crore investment since 1993 in Indian operations, as the main reason fo= r seeking disinvestment waiver.Company officials had earlier claimed that t= he Indian venture would strive to break even during the current financial y= ear with Rs 4,000 crore turnover target but will take some more time to wip= e out the accumulated losses. A 66 per cent erosion in networth means deval= uation in the book value of Coke's 10-rupee share by the same proportion, a= situation unacceptable for a company which claims numero uno position in t= he Indian soft drinks market.
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