UPDATE-1 Haldia Petrochem buys L&T stake in power utility

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KOLKATA, May 6 (Reuters) - Haldia Petrochemicals said on Tuesday it has bought management control of power utility HPL Cogeneration Ltd from Larsen & Toubro (LART.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) for 1.8 billion rupees.

HPL Cogeneration supplies steam and power exclusively to Haldia Petrochem and has an installed capacity of 116 megawatts.

L&T held 51 percent stake in the utility, while rest was held by Haldia Petrochem.

"The buyout will boost our operational efficiency," S.K. Bhowmik, managing director of Haldia Petrochem said.

Haldia's provisional net profit in 2007/08 was 2.62 billion rupees on revenues of 86 billion rupees.

HPL Cogeneration, with net profit of 760 million rupees on 1.33 billion rupees in revenue, will operate as a wholly-owned unit of Haldia Petrochem, he said.

The Kolkata-based Haldia Petrochem imports major part of naphtha to feed its 1.4-million-tonne polymer unit in the eastern state of West Bengal.

It is expanding capacity by 30 percent in the unit at a cost of 9 billion rupees.