Hyderabad-based Coastal Projects has been referred to the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) cell for the recast of its R3,575 crore worth of debt, a banker with direct knowledge said. A 22-bank consortium, led by the State Bank of India, is currently looking at admitting the company to the cell.

Private equity firms, including Barings, Sequoia Capital and Fidelity, along with Deutsche Bank, had bought about 16% in the company for about R160 crore in March 2008. Last year in January, all four invested another R250 crore, doubling their combined stake to 32%.

“Payments are not being received from clients on time; therefore, interest payments are not being met with. So, CDR is the company’s only option now as the debt burden is huge,” says an investor in Coastal Projects.

Established in 1995, Coastal Projects does construction work for companies raging from Hindustan Construction Company, BGR Energy and Jaypee Group, and for state-owned power transmission companies in India. Promoted by S Surendra, the company covers civil construction works in hydro power projects, office spaces and has also initiated work in mining and thermal power projects.

According to the information provided by the company on its website, Coastal Projects had registered sales worth R2,456 crore as on March 31, 2012. The company is yet to notify numbers for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013.

In May this year, it was reported that IFC ? the world’s bank private sector lending arm ? was in talks to invest upto $100 million in the company. Reports also suggested that the existing private equity investors were in talks to sell their stake in the company.

Apart from this, a R343-crore debt recast of Namco Industries was also referred to the cell in October.

The banks which form the CDR forum will meet later this month to discuss the cases referred and admitted to the cell and will take a call on their final restructuring packages over time.

The lenders’ forum meets every month to assess the viability of debt restructuring packages for various companies.

Between April and September this year, R65,907 crore worth of cases have been referred to the CDR cell. Of this, R43,916 crore have been approved for restructuring.