Led by public sector lender Union Bank of India, the consortium of lenders to Adlabs Entertainment is looking to sell the entire exposure of over ₹1,200 crore, said a person aware of the development.
The bank has appointed BDO India to seek expressions of interest (EoIs) from interested buyers, according to a public notice.
“Offers on 100% cash basis are invited from interested parties having requisite capacity as per the terms set out in the EoI documents,” the notice said. While the last date for submission of EoIs is 21 August, financial bids need to be submitted through an e-auction to be conducted tentatively on 12 September.
According to the expression of interest document, for corporates and other eligible investors, the consolidated net worth as per the latest audited financial statement should be at least ₹50 crore. Asset reconstruction companies registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are also eligible, with assets under management (AUM) at least ₹500 crore in the immediately preceding financial year.
The company has been a non-performing asset (NPA) since June 2018. In its FY19 annual report the company said it has been working towards reducing its debt to manageable levels.
“…company is in constant discussions with consortium lenders to arrive at a sustainable resolution and ultimately reduce the debt levels. Since June 2018, when the company became NPA, several consortium meetings of lenders have been conducted with this objective,” it said.
The company added that it has proposed that the sale of its non-core assets will form part of the overall resolution and various financing and ARC discussions have been explored along with the lenders.
“We are fully supporting lenders in resolving our debt outside of NCLT. The proposed process will serve the objective of price discovery through transparent bidding,” Dhimant Bakshi, joint chief executive officer of Adlabs Entertainment Ltd told Mint in an email.
In June, one of its lenders, Corporation Bank, referred the company to the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for a default of ₹68.84 crore.
In a statement to the stock exchanges on 7 June, Adlabs Entertainment said, “Please note that the company has received a notice from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai bench on 7 June, 2019 via an email, regarding an application filed by one of the financial creditors of the company i.e. Corporation Bank to initiate Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under Section 7 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.”
The flagship project of the company located on Mumbai-Pune Expressway is Imagica along with a 287-room hotel Novotel Imagica Khopoli.
In its annual report, Adlabs said it had entered into a term sheet with Bright Star Investments Private Limited (BSIPL) for the sale of the hotel and BSIPL paid ₹15 crore as earnest money deposit. This proposed sale, it said, depends on no objection certificate from lenders.
Source: Mint