The Board of Directors of Tata Steel and HMPCL approved the scheme of amalgamation of HMPCL with Tata Steel at their meetings held today. Tata Steel at present holds 100% of the paid up equity share capital of HMPCL.

The Scheme is subject to and conditional upon requisite approvals and sanctions being received thereof including approval of the shareholders of both the companies and sanctions of the Hon'ble High Court of Bombay and Hon’ble High Court at Kolkata, under Sections 391 and 394 of the Companies Act, 1956. Upon receipt of all the approvals, HMPCL will merge with Tata Steel with effect from 1st April 2009.

Since, HMPCL is a 100% subsidiary of Tata Steel, no new shares will be issued and all the shares held by Tata Steel in HMPCL will be cancelled. The total issued, subscribed and paid up share capital of HMPCL as on 31st March 2009 is Rs 547.7 crore.

Rationale for merger
Tata Steel is engaged in the manufacture of steel and steel related products and coke is the primary fuel for conversion of iron ore to steel in the blast furnace. All the coke manufactured by HMPCL is being used by Tata Steel at present. The merger of the two companies will help to reduce the administrative costs, streamline control, and eliminate procedural bottlenecks.

About Tata Steel:
Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel Group(including Corus) is one of the world’s top ten steel producers with a crude steel capacity of over 28 million tones. It is now the world’s second most geographically diversified steel producer, with operations in 24 countries and commercial presence in over 50 countries. For the year ended 31st March 2009, Tata Steel Group has a turnover of 1,47,329 crore. For further information, please visit www.tatasteel.com.

About HMPCL:
HMPCL was established in 2005 as a joint venture company between Tata Steel and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for the purpose of setting up a coke making facility at Haldia, West Bengal. At present HMPCL is a 100% subsidiary of Tata Steel. HMPCL has set up a coke oven unit adopting heat recovery route. The unit commenced production in September 2007 and will achieve an annual coke production capacity of 1.6 mtpa by August 2009. The entire capacity is being utilized for meeting the coke requirements of Tata Steel.