Financial creditors of Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL) on Wednesday picked Mumbai-based Suraksha group over state-owned NBCC for taking over the insolvent firm, giving hopes that thousands of homebuyers may finally get possession of their flats after many years of delay.
The 10-day-long voting process on the takeover proposals submitted by NBCC and Suraksha group ended on Wednesday afternoon. In a tight finish, Suraksha group got 98.66 per cent votes compared to NBCC’s 98.54 per cent.
This was the fourth round of bidding to find a buyer for JIL, which went into Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in August 2017.
“Suraksha group has won the bid with 98.66 per cent votes,” JIL’s Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) Anuj Jain told PTI.
It got 0.12 per cent more votes than NBCC, he added.
JIL’s IRP later informed about the voting result through stock exchange filings.
According to the voting result, Suraksha group got 41.91 per cent vote from 12 banks out of their total voting right of 43.25 per cent, while NBCC got 41.79 per cent vote from institutional financial creditors, which have submitted claims of ₹9,783 crore.
All the banks, barring ICICI Bank which has 1.34 per cent votes, voted in favour of Suraksha group. Two lenders voted against NBCC’s bid — ICICI Bank and Srei Equipment Finance Ltd (0.12 per cent voting share).
Both Suraksha and NBCC got the full 56.62 per cent and 0.13 votes of homebuyers and FD holders, respectively.
A successful resolution of JIL will provide big relief to over 20,000 homebuyers across various housing projects launched by the realty developer in Noida and Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh).
As many as 12 banks and more than 20,000 homebuyers have voting rights in the Committee of Creditors (CoC). At least 66 per cent votes are required for the approval of a bid.
After the CoC approval, Suraksha group’s offer has to be cleared by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Meanwhile, a Suraksha group spokesperson thanked the IRP and CoC for the fair process conducted by them.
“We are committed to the homebuyers, and assure them with accelerated construction work in all phases leading to faster deliveries as promised in our resolution plan,” the spokesperson added.
In its final resolution plan, Suraksha group has offered to banks over 2,500 acres of land and nearly ₹1,300 crore by way of issuing non-convertible debentures. It has promised to complete the construction of pending flats over the next 42 months.
On June 10, the CoC decided to put to vote the final resolution plans of Suraksha Realty Ltd along with Lakshdeep Investments and Finance (Suraksha group) and NBCC for acquiring the JIL under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
But before that, there was huge drama and blame game.
On May 20, the CoC decided to put on vote only Suraksha group’s bid for JIL from May 24 and rejected the bid of NBCC citing non-compliance of certain provisions related to dissenting financial creditors.
The public sector firm strongly objected to rejection of its bid in a letter to lenders and the IRP. As a consequence, a meeting of the CoC was called on May 24 on short notice and it was decided to defer the voting on Suraksha’s bid.
Through a voting process held on May 27-28, it was decided that NBCC and Suraksha should be given additional time to submit their revised and final bids.
Later in the June 10th meeting, the CoC decided to put to vote the bids of both NBCC and Suraksha group simultaneously.
JIL went into the insolvency process in August 2017 after the NCLT admitted an application by an IDBI Bank-led consortium.
In the first round of insolvency proceeding, the ₹7,350-crore bid of Lakshadweep, part of Suraksha group, was rejected by lenders. The CoC had rejected the bids of Suraksha Realty and NBCC in the second round held in May-June 2019.
The matter reached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and then the apex court.
In November 2019, the Supreme Court directed that the revised bids be invited only from NBCC and Suraksha.
Then in December 2019, the CoC approved the resolution plan of NBCC with 97.36 per cent votes in favour during the third round of the bidding process.
In March 2020, NBCC had got approval from the NCLT to acquire JIL. However, the order was challenged before the NCLAT and later the Supreme Court, which on March 24 this year ordered that fresh bids should be invited only from NBCC and Suraksha.