Tuesday, February 10, 2009

FINOLEX DEFERS SALE OF PUNE SEZ LAND

Promit Mukherjee, Mumbai
DNA

Pune-based Finolex Industries Ltd, the Rs 950-crore PVC pipes and fittings maker, has shelved the plans to sell its information technology (IT) special economic zone (SEZ) land in Chinchwad near Pune.

The company doesn't seem to have had much luck finding a buyer for the 78-acre land at the estimated cost of Rs 400 crore. Finolex is now waiting for the markets to turn and will pursue the sale after one-and-a-half to two years.

"We are in no hurry at the moment. We would like to wait and watch till some enquiries start flowing in," said a source close to the development on the condition of anonymity.

He said it might take two years for the company to start searching for a buyer again. The IT SEZ that Finolex has the approval for is said to be the first one in the Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial belt. Last year in May, the company was very close to signing a deal with a US-based SEZ developer to sell the property completely and unlock its value. But the deal was called off in July as the US developer wasn't ready to shell out Rs 400 crore for the land, said the source. The US firm Finolex was talking to couldn't be identified.

Earlier in December 2007, Finolex's talks with SEZ developer Tishman Speyer India Ventures, a 50:50 joint venture between US firm Tishman Speyer Properties and ICICI Venture, fell through. "Currently, the company has no plans of going it alone and developing the SEZ. We always wanted to sell off the property after the management decided not to develop it under the company banner," the source said.

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