Bankruptcy court admits insolvency plea against listed beverage firm Manpasand Beverages

Industry:    2021-03-13

The dedicated bankruptcy court has admitted the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against BSE-listed Manpasand Beverages Ltd. The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has appointed Arpan Maheshkumar Shah as Interim Resolution Professional for the company.

“It is made clear that all personnel connected with Corporate Debtor (Manpasand Beverages), its promoter or any other person associated with management of the corporate debtor are under a legal obligation under Section 19 of the Code extend every assistance and cooperation to the Interim Resolution Professional,” said the bench in its order of March 1.

The company has said in its stock exchange announcement on March 9 that, as per Section 17 of the IBC, the powers of the Board of Directors of the Corporate Debtor stand suspended and such powers shall be-vested with its IRP, Arpan Maheshkumar Shah.

The company’s operational creditor Huhtamaki PPL Ltd had approached the tribunal in 2019 after the homegrown beverage company had failed to repay its dues for packing material between 2016 to 2019. The operational creditor had approached the tribunal after the company defaulted on its payment of Rs 1.31 crore.

“It was claimed from the reply submitted by the Corporate Debtor (Manpasand), that there were certain financial/legal issues with the Corporate Debtor which resulted into financial distress and on account of that Corporate Debtor could not make the payment of the subject amount,” observed the tribunal in its 4-page order. “We have considered the submission made by all parties as well as material on record. As far as maintainability of application is concerned, all provisions of IBC, 2016 stand complied.”

The company had reported net sales at Rs 0.04 crore in December 2020 quarter, down 84.49% from Rs. 0.23 crore in the same quarter last year. While the company had reported a quarterly net loss at Rs 26.67 crore in December 2020 down 2.42% from Rs 26.04 crore in December 2019.

The tribunal presided over by a judicial member Madan Bhalachandra Gosavi and a technical member Virendra Kumar Gupta has restrained the promoters of the company from transferring, encumbering, alienating or disposing of its asset.

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