The Reserve Bank of India‘s move to supersede the boards of Srei group firms may see the companies head for the National Company Law Tribunal for corporate insolvency resolution under the IBC.
Most banks favour DHFL-type resolution for the group. However, the move may be opposed by Srei promoters, who have submitted a proposal to pay the full amount to banks under a scheme filed under Section 230 of the Companies Act 2013 in October 2020.
What Srei says
“We are shocked by the RBI’s move as banks have been regularly appropriating funds from the escrow account they have controlled since November 2020. Moreover, we have not received any communications from banks on any defaults,” Srei group said.
“The question of IBC does not arise because we have already submitted a debt realignment plan which has been accepted by some creditors. The plan involves paying every creditor their entire dues in a structured manner over time. in the past 10 months, the banks have collected Rs 3,000 crore through the TRA account. Hence, we are already repaying our loans. So the question of default does not arise. As banks had control over the company’s cash flow, we could not pay any other creditors. Nevertheless, the matter is sub-judice since it is with the tribunals and counts,” Srei had said. according to a report.
Srei Group was in talks for a debt realignment and lenders were waiting for the outcome of an ongoing forensic audit to take a call on debt realignment.
Related party lending?
In FY2020, RBI audit had flagged Rs 8,576 crore of probable related-party lending by Srei group.
“We had submitted a proposal to pay the full amount to banks under a scheme filed under Section 230 of the Companies Act 2013 in October 2020. However, they have neither accepted the scheme nor proposed a payment schedule acceptable to them. Banks have been controlling the company’s cash flow since November 2020. Almost Rs 3000 crore has been collected by them, out of which they have been disbursing to themselves, Srei said.
The loans
Srei Infrastructure, and its subsidiary Srei Equipment Finance, together owe lenders and debenture holders a total of Rs 30,000 crore. Kolkata-based UCO Bank is the lead lender, with more than Rs 2,000 crore of exposure. State Bank of India (SBI)’s exposure to the group is also more than Rs 2,000 crore.
The bank loans have turned non-performing assets after the end of the September quarter.
The company had earlier announced that Arena Investors, Makara Capital and others had evinced interest to invest in the company to the tune of Rs 2,200 crore. The company had formed a strategic coordination committee to coordinate, negotiate and conclude discussions with the investors.
The suitors
Till date, it received expressions of interest from 11 investors and has signed non-disclosure agreements with nine of them. Two Investors — Makara and Arena — had submitted non-binding term sheets indicating their intent for investment.
Srei Infrastructure, which is a listed entity, reported a net loss of Rs 971 crore in the June quarter as against Rs 23 crore net profit in the year ago period as provisions on loans rose nearly seven times to Rs 439 crore over the same period as repayment collections were hit due to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.
“The appointment of the administrator by the RBI paves the way for the corporate resolution process of the two Srei entities. Once the NCLT approves the same, the board of directors of these entities will stand suspended. A moratorium will be imposed on any proceedings against these entities, enforcement of any security or transfer of assets.
The CIRP will enable foreign creditors, including ECB lenders and bond holders to restructure their debts alongside domestic creditors. If a resolution plan is successfully approved under the CIRP, it will allow the companies to start on a clean slate, which is missing under the RBI stressed assets framework. This decision of RBI follows on the heels of a successful resolution process of DHFL,” Aashit Shah, Partner, J Sagar Associates, said.