Nagpur: Even as the Nagpur’s top shot industrialists are filing for insolvency and bankruptcy, yet another major company has joined the list of mega defaulters. However this company turned out to be the biggest loan defaulter in India. Manoj Jayaswal-led Abhijeet MADC Energy Private Limited (AMNEPL) will now have to face the insolvency petition filed by Alchemist Asset Reconstruction Company (AARC) over a loan default of Rs 959 crore. Companies under Jayaswal’s Abhijeet Group are sitting on bad loans worth Rs 11,000 crore, making it one of the largest outstanding accounts in India.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has accepted the petition of Achemist. AARC had taken over the loans from a consortium of lenders, including Axis Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, Bank of Maharashtra, and Uco Bank. AARC had issued a notice to AMNEPL in January under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act. As the company failed to clear the dues even after the notice, AARC filed a petition before the tribunal, which admitted its plea over a fortnight ago.
Kolkata-based financial professional Vinod Kothari has been appointed as interim resolution professional (IRP). The IRP’s job is to take over the management and suggest a revival package to the committee of creditors. This is like giving one more chance before final liquidation. The plan has to be submitted within 180 days. Kothari’s name was suggested by AMNEPL.
AMNEPL is a joint venture between Abhijeet Group and Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), the state government agency developing Mihan-SEZ. The company was assigned to set up a power plant to supply electricity to Mihan-SEZ complex. The tariff was fixed at Rs2.97 per unit. However, Abhijeet Group stopped power supply on the grounds that it was not feasible at the tariff fixed originally, especially when the demand in Mihan was not at the level projected. With this, the 260MW capacity power plant was mothballed and ended up being a dead investment.
AARC said the company originally owed Rs772 crore to the four banks. As it could not repay the loan, a Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) scheme as approved on March 28, 2013. After that, a master restructuring agreement was approved on April 20, 2013. However, despite all the efforts, the company failed to repay the loan.
Finally, all the banks classified it as Non-Performing Asset (NPA) one after the other. Axis Bank was the last to give it the NPA tag, in July 2015. After that, the loan was assigned to AARC, which is claiming the dues as on July 31, 2017, which comes to Rs959 crore.
MADC, which is 26% stakeholder in AMNEPL, had filed an intervening petition in the case. The intervention plea seeks that IRP and committee of creditors cooperate with MADC in case of a dispute. Land on which the project has been set up belongs to MADC. The NCLT bench has observed that in case of any difficulty from any side, the IRP will have to cooperate with MADC.
AMNEPL was supposed to supply power to Mihan-SEZ, developed by MADC. Deal failed as power demand in Mihan never reached projected levels, and project ended up a dead investment Lenders involved include Axis Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, Uco Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra. All banks have classified the loans as NPA.
