NOIDA: Almost four years after Jaypee Infratech was referred for insolvency resolution, Mumbai-based Suraksha group on Wednesday emerged as the preferred bidder in the fourth attempt, beating state-run NBCC by the narrowest of margins.
Sudhir Valia-controlled Suraksha polled 98.66% of the votes, while NBCC received 98.54%.
Valia is a relative of Sun Pharma promoter and managing director Dilip Sanghvi and is also on the board of the country’s largest drug company.
Unlike the past when home buyers and banks had opted to vote for one of the players in the fray, this time, a large number chose to opt for both.
Lenders led by IDBI Bank, which had all along gone with NBCC, voted for both in the round.
Srei Finance, which has a 0.12% vote share, and had so far not voted, gave an assenting vote for Suraksha.
Those associated with the long-drawn process suggested there is still some distance to cover until Suraksha is confirmed as the resolution applicant.
On Wednesday itself, the vote has been endorsed by the committee of creditors.
NBCC: Lost due to negative votes from institutional lendersThe panel comprises homebuyers and lenders and Suraksha Group —comprising Suraksha Realty and Lakshwadeep Investment — will now need to be cleared by the National Company Law Tribunal, the bankruptcy court, and the Supreme Court before it can formally be in the saddle.
“Our endeavour is to approach NCLT before July 7 so that it can be decided at the earliest,” said interim resolution professional Anuj Jain, who has been overseeing the entire process.Suraksha will have to submit a Rs 100 crore bank guarantee the proposal goes to NCLT, he added.
Suraksha, which has acquired 18 real estate projects, including those from Unitech, Ansal and Ramprastha group in the National Capital Region, has been in the fray ever since Jaypee came under insolvency action, following RBI’s directive to lenders.
It is also working on a 400-acre project in Vasai, near Mumbai.
“It has been a long trial for us.
We have distinctly included all appeals by homebuyers in our plan to make it competitive.
We won the bids because of our meticulous details and transparency – 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,” Aalok Dave, MD & CEO, Suraksha ARC told TOI.
Buyers, banks and other lenders had a10-day window to select one of the two proposals by state-backed NBCC or Suraksha.
The lenders were asked to give their consent for either Resolution Applicant (RA) through a secure e-voting system.
“Though we had the buyers’ confidence, we lost because of negative votes by institutional lenders,” an NBCC spokesperson said while commenting on the voting results.
The major differences between the two proposals of Suraksha and NBCC were that Suraksha has proposed to bring a corpus worth Rs 3,000 crore up front to start construction of the pending flats.
NBCC committed an upfront Rs 2,000 crore fund.
Buyers’ decision was partially influenced by NBCC’s proposal that it would hive off the Yamuna Expressway by delinking it from JIL’s other land assets and convert it into a SPV.
Suraksha’s proposal has no intent for selling the Yamuna Expressway.