Transactions with Money Matters fee-based: HCC

26 Nov 2010

Hindustan Construction Company's stock took a severe beating as it has been closely associated with Money Matters-the company that was implicated in bribe-for-loan scam. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, HCC CMD Ajit Gulabchand said he was surprised by the investor reaction, as all dealings in regards to its Lavasa project had been transparent. Gulabchand said it had engaged Money Matters services for a fee.

He said that the CBI allegations had no substance and that all the company's transactions with clients were transparent in nature. ''I don't see any reason for this kind of fall in stock price.'' he said. However, he added that he would completely cooperate with the CBI investigations.

Gulabchand said he does not fear reprising or calling back of any of the bank loans. "All our transactions were syndicated without any favours, he said. He also does not expects credit flow to infrastructure companies as a whole to halt.

Below is a verbatim transcript of Ajit Gulabchand's exclusive interview on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying videos for more.

Are you surprised to see this kind of reaction to your stock price over the last couple of days?
Certainly I am, because I don't see the reason for this kind of fall. This needs some kind of clarification, particularly the way some of the reports that came up on the issue of CBI investigating LIC Housing. Let me first be on record to say that as far as we are concerned we had no dealings with LIC Housing.

As a company, Lavasa Corporation and HCC have been in the market from time to time to raise debt as well as equity and we have been engaging a number of people to help do this kind of syndication.