The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) will hear on 23 March a case filed by Srei group’s bondholders challenging an order by the Kolkata bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowing Srei to skip repayments between 1 January and 30 June.
“Learned senior counsel for the respondent submits that due to some difficulty, they could not file the documents. Let the matter be fixed ‘for admission’ (after notice) on 23 March 2021,” the NCLAT said in its order on Wednesday.
Debenture trustees Axis Trustee Services Ltd and Catalyst Trusteeship Ltd, which represent bondholders, have jointly moved the tribunal against the NCLT order, which has impacted retail and institutional investors alike.
Retail investors were particularly hit by the halt to repayments, which the company said was meant to deal with the asset liability mismatches that occurred as a consequence of covid-19. So far, the Kolkata-based non-bank financier missed repayments on eight instances between 11 January and 15 February, showed data.
Apart from bank loans, Srei is estimated to have outstanding market-linked debt instruments worth ₹499 crore, including the money put in by retail investors. Under the scheme of arrangement, Srei proposed to make repayments to several categories of debenture holders over an extended period. Retail investors will get their interest accrued during the moratorium period within 15 days after it ends.
