The Hyderabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved a ₹2,400 crore one-time settlement plan (OTS) by promoters of the engineering, procurement and construction company Gayatri Projects, pushing a three-year-old process to resolve the ₹8,100 dues of lenders led by Canara Bank, closer to its climax.
The company, promoted by former Rajya Sabha MP T Subbarami Reddy and his family, has offered to pay ₹750 crore in fund-based exposure and cover any invocation of bank guarantees by lenders.
“Banks have voted in favour of the promoter settlement with 97% of lenders agreeing to the proposal. Now the NCLT order has put its judicial stamp, the promoters have 90 days to pay up,” said a person aware of the details.
Under the repayment plan, lenders are due to receive ₹750 crore from the promoters, and a further ₹450 crore earmarked to be coming from arbitration claims due to the company. The promoters have also promised to make good ₹45 crore in bank guarantee commissions due to lenders and will provide a cover in case any of ₹1,100 crore of existing guarantees are invoked.
“The promoters have already deposited ₹115 crore with lenders. The rest of the cash payments will be made through monetisation of assets and funds arranged from investors,” said the person cited above.
Gayatri Projects promoters could not be immediately reached.
Banks had taken about 13 properties of the company as collateral, seven of which will be released to be sold for repayment of loans.
For lenders, this settlement by promoters is the best option currently, though its means only 30% recovery of their ₹8,100 crore dues as they failed to find a buyer for the company in the last three years.
In fact, lenders had voted to liquidate the company after failing to find a buyer after a process that started in November 2022. Canara Bank is the lead lender to the company with 24% of the debt.
