A week after Carbon Resources offloaded its stake in McLeod Russel in the open market, the owners of the two entities have returned to the negotiating table. Abhinav Jalan, director of Carbon, acknowledged that there has been a resumption of dialogue this week. The same was corroborated by a source in the Khaitan family, the promoters of bulk tea producer McLeod.
“We are talking about a deal on the same terms as previously discussed,” Jalan, who is travelling abroad, confirmed.
The Suresh Jalan-family promoted Carbon, which manufactures inputs for ferro alloy, aluminium and steel industries, had offered Rs 750 crore to the McLeod promoters. It was hoping to acquire 15 gardens capable of producing 18 million kg of crops.
The contour of the deal may change depending on McLeod’s lenders. The tea producer owes Rs 1,600-crore odd in principal to a clutch of banks who collectively suggested a one-time settlement of outstanding loans to resolve the debt woes.
According to a source, the Khaitans may have suggested a sum of Rs 1,030 crore as OTS amount to banks who are still discussing it internally.
“Things are a bit fluid right now,” said the Khaitan family source mentioned above, indicating that there are many moving pieces of the OTS puzzle. After banks decide on an OTS number, the promoters would have to strike a fine balance to arrange funds internally and by the sale of gardens. McLeod has 33 gardens in India producing 42 million kg tea annually.
Jalan ruled out the possibility of joint ownership with the Khaitans, which would involve Carbon investing in the equity of McLeod. “We are only interested in asset sales,” he said on Wednesday.
In January, Carbon and McLeod entered into exclusive talks to work out the OTS. The discussion abruptly ended when the tea producer was admitted to insolvency. When McLeod came out of insolvency by settling with the creditor in May, the Khaitans and the Jalans resumed talk, which broke down last week.
After Carbon sold its 5 per cent stake in McLeod citing failed talks at least three reputed tea firms showed interest in buying McLeod gardens.
According to one source in the tea industry, the gardens McLeod wants to sell are not some of their best. Moreover, these gardens are scattered over regions of Assam, which could pose operational challenges for a new owner.
Tea auction
A lot of Assam orthodox green tea from Halmari garden fetched Rs 40,002 a kg price in the special auction that took place in Calcutta on Monday to celebrate international tea day. Bhansali & Co was the buyer while J Thomas & Co was the broker.
In the Darjeeling category, a lot from Badamtam garden fetched Rs 19,012 a kg price where the buyer and the broker were Raghunath Exports and J Thomas, respectively.
In CTC, Uniworld Tea Traders bought a lot from Amgoorie for Rs 2,750 a kg.
