The National Company Law Tribunal’s order asking two directors of Nicco Parks & Resorts to vacate their positions may revive investor interest in the sale of Nicco Corp’s 25% stake in it, said Vinod Kothari, the liquidator appointed for the bankrupt Nicco Corp.
The liquidation process, which started in October 2017, could not be completed due to poor interest from investors.
Rajive Kaul and daughter Pallavi Priyadarshini have been Nicco Corp’s nominee directors at Nicco Parks & Resorts. The bankruptcy court’s Kolkata bench in a December 18 order told the two, who were promoters of Nicco Corp, to leave the positions. Pallavi got a stay on the part of the order concerning her.
“As liquidator, our intent and objective is maximisation of value of the investments. We hold the view that with erstwhile promoter-directors on board of NPRL (Nicco Parks & Resorts), and NCL’s (Nicco Corp’s) rights of nomination being suppressed, interest of prospective buyers was adversely affected,” Kothari said.
“After all, any investor would want control via positions on the board. Hence, we hold the view that there may be more interest in acquiring the shares of NPRL after the orders of NCLT are implemented,” he said.
Kaul said the subject was sub judice and refused to comment further when ET contacted him.
Since October 2017, only about 17% of the claim by Nicco Corp’s workers and lenders has been met by sale of assets in parcels, against the primary intention of a slump sale, which means selling of all assets as a single unit.
The three major assets of Nicco Corp are its Shyamnagar plant, investment in NPRL and a part of Nicco House, which is occupied by the promoters.
The reserve prices for the Shyamnagar plant now stands at Rs 28.3 crore. For Nicco Corp’s stake in NPRL, it is Rs 30 crore and for an unsold part of Nicco House, it is Rs 10.9 crore, after several rounds of downward revisions.
The lenders with a cumulative exposure of about Rs 325 crore in Nicco Corp may have to let go of about 70% of the money going by the revised reserve price.
State Bank of India has a Rs 112 crore exposure to Nicco, while Allahabad Bank has Rs 95 crore. Other lenders to Nicco are Canara Bank (Rs 44 crore), Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (Rs 27 crore), Srei Infrastructure Finance (Rs 24 crore) and Central Bank of India (Rs 20 crore).
Source: Economic Times