CALCUTTA, Mar 20: Ailing tyre-maker Dunlop India Ltd has appointed solicitors Crawford Bailey in Mumbai and Orr Dignam in Calcutta to find a buyer for its prime assets in the two cities. The company, which applied to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in January, informed the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) on March 13 about its bid to raise cash by selling real estate.With the Calcutta high court vacating a stay on sale of assets by Dunlop, the MR Chhabria-controlled company is understood to be in a hurry to dispose of its headquarters building on Mirza Ghalib Street here and a prime property at Worli in Mumbai, which the company feels are non-performing assets (NPAs).
The company's spokesman here could not confirm the solicitors' names.Dunlop's letter to the DCA, written by company secretary RN Chakraborty says: "In its endeavour to augument working capital through liberalising of NPAs, the company is negotiating with a number of parties to sell its property at Worli inMumbai and those at Mirza Ghalib Street in Calcutta."The letter adds that these negotiations are being conducted by Crawford Bailey and Orr Dignam.
In January, Dunlop had sought buyers for the assets through an advertisement on the Internet in January. In the first week of February, it shut down two factories in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, citing cash-crunch and labour problems.
The Worli property has an area of 4,243 square metre (sqm) and a built-up area of 8,136 sqm, according to the Internet advertisemsnt. In Calcutta, the property at 57B Mirza Ghalib Street has an area of 3,436 sqm and a built-up area of 7,899 sqm, while that at 62A Mirza Ghalib Street has an area of 3,177 sqm, the advertisement adds.
Dunlop's bid to sell the properties was stalled when the Mumbai-based NRC Ltd petitioned the Calcutta high court on February 24 to wind up the company as it had failed to repay dues worth Rs 3.89 crore. Justice SK Sinha stayed Dunlop from disposing its assets.
Subsequently, the stay was vacated byjustice Sinha on the grounds that Dunlop had applied to the BIFR. NRC, the directive said, was free to apply to the BIFR for recovering its dues.
NRC, however, appealed against this order before a division bench of justices SK Sen and Altamas Kabir this week. A specific order is yet to be passed.
For the first six months of the current fiscal, Dunlop had reported a loss of Rs 19.2 crore. For the year to March 31, 1997, it had reported a profit of Rs 5.14 crore.
The Board for Industrial & Finanacial Reconstruction will decide on March 31 whether Dunlop is a fit case for it.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
