A senior official stated on Sunday that the Consolidated Committee of Creditors (CoC) of two debt-ridden Srei enterprises is likely to require bidders to enhance their resolution plans by December 15. The CoC, on the other hand, is dedicated to the adjudicating authority’s January 5 (2023) timetable for completing the corporate insolvency resolution procedure, he added.
Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance Ltd (SEFL), both situated in Kolkata, have received three offers in their resolution process before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
“Intense talks are taking place with each bidder,” a top official involved in the process told PTI. “After another meeting scheduled on December 12, bidders will be offered to submit their updated proposals by December 15.”
Before filing to the NCLT, the CoC will “vote on the resolution plans when the updated bids are filed and the RBI clearance is obtained,” he added.
“The resolution procedure will be completed by the deadline of January 5,” the official claimed.
Rajneesh Sharma, the RBI’s newly designated Srei administrator, could not be reached for comment.
The CoC has been having internal meetings in addition to deliberating with the three bidders for Srei group’s NBFCs in Mumbai: Varde Partners and Arena consortia, National Asset Reconstruction Co Ltd, and Authum Investment and Infrastructure.
According to a government official who attended the talks, the partnership of Varde Partners and Arena made a proposal of Rs 14,000 crore, while NARCL filed a resolution plan worth Rs 13,500 crore.
According to him, the third proposal from Authum Investment and Infrastructure is worth Rs 7,000 crore.
Resolution plans’ worth could not be objectively confirmed.
The overall amount of the resolution plans presented by the applicants includes immediate cash payouts as well as delayed payments via instruments such as NCDs and OCDs. The repayment period spans between three and seven years.
Authum’s cash payment component was the biggest at Rs 2,800 crore, and it promised to pay out the whole agreed value in 3.5 years. According to the official, the other two bids will need 5-7 years to clear the payments.
He stated that, contrary to bank expectations, NARCL is unable to provide a government guarantee for deferred payment instruments.
“NARCL has said that government guarantees are only available in nomination circumstances when banks directly transfer an asset to NARCL, not in assets purchased through a bidding procedure,” the spokesperson explained.
The three bids were among 17 final prospective resolution candidates for the Srei group’s two enterprises.
Capri Global and AM Mining, an ArcelorMittal affiliate, were among the final list of prospective resolution applications. They did not, however, present resolution ideas and therefore opted out of the race.
After the Reserve Bank of India’s insolvency petitions were allowed by the National Company Law Tribunal’s Kolkata bench, proceedings against SIFL and its subsidiary SEFL commenced in October 2021.
The settlement process is set to conclude on January 5, 2023.
Financial creditors have admitted claims of around Rs 32,000 crore.
State Bank of India, Punjab and Sind Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, and Indian Overseas Bank are among the lenders to the two Srei firms.