National Asset Reconstruction Co Ltd (NARCL) has emerged as the preferred bidder to take over the distressed Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) after process advisor IDBI Capital Markets & Securities (ICMS) did not receive any competing bid to the Rs 12,000 crore offer by the government backed bad loan aggregator.
ICMS had extended the timeline to find a competing bid by a week to January 14 last Wednesday but since no offer came up in the time period, NARCL’s is now the only one to take over JAL, people familiar with the details said.
Close to a dozen entities had shown interest in acquiring the Noida based conglomerate on an all cash basis in challenge to the NARCL’s offer, ET had reported earlier this month.
“It was decided there is no point in extending the timeline since no serious bids are expected. NARCL will be formally intimated this week following which it will approach the government to sign off on the guarantee issued for this deal. Banks are hopeful the process willl be completed before the end of March so that they can show this recovery in the current fiscal,” said one of the persons aware of the details.
JAL owes lenders a total of Rs 57, 177 crore, led by Rs 15,465 crore to State Bank of India (SBI) and Rs 10,443 crore by ICICI Bank. NARCL’s Rs 12,000 crore bid envisages a 23% recovery for lenders which any competitor will have to beat. But unlike other ARCs NARCL’s offer with includes only 15% cash and 85% security receipts which are backed by a government guarantee.
For NARCL too JAL will be its largest acquisition and help it add to its business growth after what has been a slow fiscal year.
JAL is the biggest insolvency resolution case since the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) came into force in 2016 which is yet to be resolved. In terms of debt size, the JAL resolution is only dwarfed by the Rs 65,000 crore owed by Videocon Industries to its creditors.
JAL was among the 26 defaulters that the Reserve Bank of India had directed to be taken to the bankruptcy process in 2017 but has been entangled in litigation. The NCLAT is yet to pronounce its order in response to the company’s appeal against the NCLT decision to start insolvency proceedings against JAL in June this year.
Its assets on the ground have made bankers hopeful of a respectable recovery if they consolidate this debt into the public-sector bank controlled NARCL.
The assets include operating cement plants with capacity of more than 9 million tonnes; real estate around the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Area; hotels in Delhi, Noida, Mussoorie and Agra; engineering, procurement and construction business, power plants, a hospital in Noida and the Buddh International Circuit.
