'Parent company cheated me!' says Saumya DSM
Gas retailer Saumya DSM Infratech, also known by brand name Sanwariya Gas, is worried that its parent company Saumya Mining will exit without paying for uncompleted work.
Sanwariya Gas director Vinod Kumar wrote to the State Bank of India, State Bank of Mysore and Union Bank of India on May 19 asking them not to release a corporate bond worth Rs80cr ($13.5m) and personal bond worth 15cr ($2.5m) supplied by Saumya Mining as a performance guarantee. Kumar wants the banks to appoint an independent auditor to work out whether Saumya Mining should get its bonds released.
Saumya Mining has sold its 35% in Sanwariya to co-promoter DSM Infracom, increasing its stake from 51% to 86%. But Kumar claims Saumya Mining hasn't completed an EPC contract it was awarded by Sanwariya in 2010 to lay gas pipeline infrastructure in Mathura.
"Saumya Mining has not completed the majority of the work," adds Kumar. "Saumya Mining showed us on its books it had connected 28,000 homes but in reality it hasn't even connected 2000.
We trusted them and paid the full amount (for 28,000 homes).” Sanwariya won the CGD license for Mathura in June 2009 in India's first retail gas licensing round.
Kumar says Sanwariya will struggle to repay Rs91cr ($15m) bank loans if they release the bank guarantee to Saumya Mining "without verifying the facts."