Troubled tour operator Cox & Kings may head for liquidation as no buyer has turned up for the company. The company said in a regulatory filing lenders have filed an application with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai for liquidation. The lenders moved NCLT after committee of creditors (CoC) voted in favour of liquidation with the requisite majority of more than 66%.
“In this 14th meeting of the committee of creditors, the resolution for liquidation of the company was put to vote through e-voting as resolution plan was not submitted by any of the prospective resolution applicants despite repeated efforts, ” the company said.
Cox & Kings’ total dues to financial creditors stands at Rs 5,838 crore. Of all the banks, private lender Yes Bank has a highest exposure of Rs 2,267 crore, followed by Rs 1,065 crore from Axis Bank, Rs 635 crore from SBI and Rs 270 crore from IndusInd Bank. The company has been undergoing insolvency proceedings at the NCLT since October 2019.
Many lenders, including State Bank of India (SBI), IndusInd Bank and Indian Bank have declared the account as ‘fraud’.
This classification requires banks to make provisions of 100% of the total amount due to them as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. Suspecting a fraud, the lenders to Cox & Kings had roped in Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) for a forensic investigation into the matter and the role of senior executives of the company. The audit report submitted to lenders have reportedly found that transactions worth `21,000 crore between 2015 to 2019 were done mainly to siphon off funds. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting a separate investigation for alleged fraud by the promoters.