The NCLT has reportedly rejected the resolution plan of Anirudh Agro Farms for Viceroy Hotels following the expiry of bank guarantees and directed the continuation of the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) and asked the resolution professional to call for fresh bids. According to MoneyControl.com, the tribunal found the plan to be in breach of statutory provisions and did not accept AAFL’s undertaking to make payments to creditors in five tranches. LiveMint could not independently verify the report.
On 9 June, the NCLT Hyderabad bench comprising judicial member Venkata Ramakrishna Badarinath Nandula and technical member Charan Singh rejected the application filed by Govindarajula Venkata Narasimha Rao seeking to approve the resolution plan of Anirudh Agro, which had been approved by 95.82% of the committee of creditors (CoC).
At present, Viceroy Hotels own two properties in Hyderabad.
In 2018, the NCLT admitted the petition filed by the financial creditor the Asset Reconstruction Company, and ordered the commencement of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) proceedings.
According to a report by Moneycontrol, ₹714.24 crore of claims were admitted by creditors after resolution professionals constituted the Comitteee of Credtors and invited bids from applicants.
Nearly 88% CoC approved the resolution plan of CFM Asset Reconstruction but the NCLT rejected it in September 2021. The court stated that the asset reconstruction company would not be capable of implementing the resolution plan without the prior approval of the RBI.
The tribunal extended the insolvency process several times, allowing CoC to replace the resolution professional, and asked for fresh bids.
In response to the bids for June 2022, five applicants submitted their plans including Anirudh Agro. And, the resolution plan of AAFL at ₹168.5 crore was approved by the CoC on 10 November 2022.
However, NCLT found that the bank guarantees by Anirudh Agro got expired. The tribunal also rejected AAFL’s offer that payments to creditors would be made in five tranches.