The consolidated committee of creditors (CoC) of two Srei companies has extended the deadline for submission of the revised resolution plans till December 24 after the resolution applicants asked for additional time.
All the three resolution applicants — a consortium of Varde Partners and Arena Investors, National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) and Authum Investment and Infrastructure — are expected to submit their revised resolution plans with higher financial bids for acquiring the two insolvent Srei companies, Srei Infrastructure Finance (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance (SEFL), according to sources close to the development.
“The core committee meeting of the CoC took place. Next meeting of the core committee will take place soon. Discussions with the resolution applicants happened for value addition. Many issues raised by the resolution applicants have been resolved. They asked for additional time for submission of the revised resolution plans, and the CoC has accepted it,” the sources told FE.
“Last date for revised resolution plan submission is now December 24. All the resolution applicants are expected to revised their resolution plans. Revised resolution plans are likely be put on vote for CoC’s approval by December 28,” the sources added.
Earlier, the bidders were expected to submit revised resolution plans by December 15.
The consortium of Varde Partners and Arena Investors, NARCL and Authum Investment had submitted resolution plans for the two NBFCs, which are under the corporate insolvency resolution process, in the first week of this month as the deadline for submission of the plans by prospective resolution applicants was December 2. Following that, the CoC asked all the three bidders for upward revisions of their financial bids and upfront cash offered.
According to the people familiar with the resolution process, while the consortium of Varde Partners and Arena Investor had submitted a financial bid of around Rs 14,000 crore for SIFL and SEFL, NARCL had put forward a financial bid of around `13,600 crore. However, Authum Investment and Infrastructure’s financial bid had stood as low as `4,500 crore.
As per its resolution plan, the government-promoted bad bank had committed an upfront cash payment of around Rs 2,100 crore, while the consortium of Varde Partners and Arena Investor’s resolution plan had included Rs 2,800 crore in upfront cash. Authum Investment’s resolution plan had included an upfront cash component of around `2,600 crore.
Insolvency proceedings against SIFL and its subsidiary SEFL commenced in October, 2021 after insolvency petitions filed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were approved by the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The final date for completion of the CIRP process is scheduled on January 5, 2023.
The total admitted claims of the financial creditors of the two NBFCs are `32,750.22 crore. State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank and Indian Overseas Bank, among others, are the financial creditors of SIFL and SEFL.