Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali to pay off Ruchi Soya lenders; another boost for lenders after Essar Steel

Approval was received by Patanjali Ayurved from NCLT in September this year for Ruchi Soya’s acquisition.

In another boost for lenders under insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC), the resolution plan for debt-ridden edible oil firm is likely to be completed Monday after Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved secured funding from five banks, CNBC TV-18 reported citing unidentified sources. It comes after the banks including SBI, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, PNB among others recovered a whopping Rs 42,000 crore, after ArcelorMittal made the promised repayment following resolution of Essar Steel under IBC a couple of days back. The lenders to Ruchi Soya are expected to receive a settlement of their dues today, it added. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) extended, till December 16, the deadline for completion of Patanjali’s Rs 4,350 crore resolution plan to acquire Ruchi Soya.

Approval was received by Patanjali Ayurved from NCLT in September this year for Ruchi Soya’s acquisition, which had gone into insolvency in December 2017. NCLT had admitted the insolvency plea filed by two lead financial creditors Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank. However, later the Singapore-based DBS Bank became a dissenting creditor and approached NCLAT challenging the distribution of proceeds from the bid submitted by Patanjali Ayurveda.

The banks have recovered Rs 1.13 lakh crore in the last two years, while the total admitted claim in the seven cases was Rs 2.13 lakh crore. The 12 large accounts referred by RBI to IBC included Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Jaypee Infratech, Lanco Infratech, Monnet Ispat & Energy, Jyoti Structures, Electrosteel Steels, Amtek Auto, Era Infra Engineering, Alok Industries Ltd and ABG Shipyard. These accounts together had a total outstanding loan of Rs 1.75 lakh crore. In FY19, the recovery under the IBC had been Rs 70,000 crore. It was double the amount than the figure recovered through the debt recovery tribunal, Securitisation, and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest Act, and Lok Adalat in FY18, a CRISIL report said.