Lenders to the debt-ridden Altico Capital have signed a settlement agreement with Ares SSG Capital to resolve the real estate financier, sources close to the development told FE.

The agreement will pave the way for the implementation of the resolution plan approved by the lenders in March 2020. The lenders had approved Ares SSG Capital’s Rs 2,759-crore bid, against the total debt of Rs 4,300 crore. Additionally, Rs 354 crore was promised in the form of security receipts.

Altico Capital’s board approved the implementation of a settlement with its lenders in its meeting on February 23. The company had earlier filed an application with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to transfer the ownership to Ares SSG Capital from existing investors Clearwater Capital Partners, Varde Partners and Abu Dhabi Investment Council.

The company also intends to make an application to the RBI to surrender its certificate of registration as a non-banking financial company (NBFC). “The RBI did not provide any regulatory concessions for a direct company sale, which means that Altico has to forego its NBFC licence,” a senior official who was involved in the deal said. “We expect this deal to be completed by the end of this month.”

Altico Capital was faced with a liquidity crunch in 2019. It defaulted on a Rs 19-crore external commercial borrowing repayment to Mashreq Bank in September 2019, which led to a few lenders recalling loans. Later, lenders formed a committee to execute a resolution plan under the RBI’s circular by signing an inter-creditor agreement. Altico Capital owed more than Rs 4,300 crore to 27 lenders, led by State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, UTI MF and Reliance MF, among others.