Lenders to Videocon group’s energy business have extended the deadline for submitting the resolution plan till 30 September after it failed to receive any bids from potential applicants, according to two bankers aware of the development.
Videocon Oil Ventures Ltd (VOVL), which is engaged in oil and gas extraction through international subsidiaries, had received expressions of interest from four companies, including Vedanta and Brazil-based Petrobras, for its overseas assets.
“We have received no bids so far. It is almost a year since the timeline has been extended. Bankers believe that liquidation may not fetch any value, so the lenders have decided to extend the timeline further,” said the first banker aware of the matter.
The delay in VOVL’s resolution adds to the woes of lenders who are awaiting the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s (NCLAT’s) decision on the debt resolution process of Videocon.
The Supreme Court had last month refused to set aside the stay order given by NCLAT on Vedanta Group’s Twin Star Technologies acquisition of Videocon group. It directed NCLAT to give its final decision on the matter on 7 September.
NCLAT’s decision to stay the debt resolution process was based on an appeal by the Bank of Maharashtra, which contended that the Twin Star bid had been made too close to the liquidation value.
Videocon was in the first list of the 12 largest accounts that the Reserve Bank of India referred for bankruptcy in late 2016. VOVL is not part of Videocon Group’s corporate insolvency proceedings but was admitted separately in 2019. The company, which has a debt of nearly ₹30,000 crore, is backed by a corporate guarantee worth ₹24,000 crore from Videocon Industries Ltd.
VOVL holds 99% shares in Videocon Hydrocarbon Holdings Ltd (VHHL), a Cayman Islands company formed in 2009 for the Videocon group’s global oil and gas assets. VHHL in turn holds 100% of equity shares of Videocon Energy Brazil Ltd (VEBL), which is a 50% joint venture partner in IBV Brasil Petróleo Ltd.
VHHL holds 100% of the equity shares of Videocon Indonesia Nunukan Inc. The lenders had given credit facilities to VOVL and IBV, which has become a non-performing asset.
Source: Mint