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After a protracted battle, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has finally cleared the Rs 4,350-crore bid by yoga-exponent Baba Ramdev-run Patanjali Ayurved to take over edible oil player Ruchi Soya, which owes over Rs 9,345 crore to the lenders and around Rs 2,800 crore to other creditors.
The NCLT approval, as reported by PTI , comes after it dismissed the petitions filed by Standard Chartered Bank and Singaporean lender DBS, which had both challenged the low bid by Patanjali and the resultant lower payout.
Ruchi Soya owes over Rs 9,345 crore to financial creditors led by State Bank of India, which has an exposure of Rs 1,800 crore, followed by Central Bank at Rs 816 crore, Punjab National Bank at Rs 743 crore and StanChart at Rs 608 crore and DBS at Rs 243 crore. Thus the resolution comes at over Rs 60 percent haircut to the lenders. That apart, the RP has admitted claims worth Rs 2,716.61 crore from operational creditors. The order does not say how much they will get from the proceeds, though.
The tribunal said its “approval for the deal is subject to the resolution professional (RP) bridging the information gap regarding the exact source of funds worth Rs 600 crore that is part of bid before the next date of hearing on 1 August.”
