NBCC says its offer for Jaypee Infratech 'legally compliant'

NBCC says its offer for Jaypee Infratech ‘legally compliant’

NEW DELHI: State-owned NBCC, whose bid was rejected by creditors of Jaypee Infratech, on Wednesday asserted that its offer was “legally compliant” though the company will try to address the objections raised by the interim resolution professional if allowed to submit a fresh bid.

At its meeting held on May 24, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) deferred the voting on Suraksha Group’s bid. It also decided to conduct a voting process on May 27-28 to decide whether the two contenders — NBCC and Suraksha — should be given additional time to submit their revised and final bids.

In a letter to Anuj Jain, the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) for Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL), NBCC said it has responded to his letters on non-compliance issues related to its offer to dissenting financial creditors.

NBCC had submitted its resolution plan on May 18 and later an addendum on May 22, but both the documents were declared as non-compliant by the IRP.

“We hereby submit that NBCC had submitted a plan after considering all the factors and taking the best possible legal advice,” NBCC said.

The Supreme Court Judgement, dated March 24, which directed for calling of bids from NBCC and Suraksha only mentioned about making a provision for full liquidation value for dissenting financial creditors and did not provide for any undertaking for any kind, the public sector firm said.

Accordingly, NBCC said it made provisions in the plan for the complete liquidation value for dissenting financial creditors in various forms.

“We understand from above letters (of IRP) that a few provisions like promotors guarantee, personal guarantee of Manoj Gaur and NCDs have not been considered as valid provisions,” NBCC said.

The IRP has also asked for a short fall undertaking to be provided by NBCC.

“Though we consider our plan as legally compliant as per our understanding we appreciate that you have to forward legally compliant plans to CoC as per your understanding.

“Since NBCC is fully committed to the resolution plan which will provide houses to about 20,000 homebuyers who are waiting since long, we are ready to consider your point of view and put up to our Board for necessary amendments,” the letter said.

In case it is asked to submit a revised plan, NBCC would do on the basis of the IRP’s observations and his satisfaction for the benefit of all the stakeholders, primarily the homebuyers who should not suffer due to differing legal interpretations.

JIL went into the insolvency process in August 2017 after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an application by an IDBI Bank-led consortium.

In the first round of insolvency proceeding, the Rs 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 JIL insolvency process should be completed within 90 days and that the revised bids should be invited only from NBCC and Suraksha Group.

In December 2019, the CoC approved the resolution plan of NBCC with a 97.36 per cent vote in favour during the third round of the bidding process.

Later in March 2020, NBCC had got an approval from NCLT to acquire JIL.

However, the order was challenged before NCLAT and later in the Supreme Court, which in March this year ordered that fresh bids be invited only from NBCC and Suraksha.