Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Welspun are the leading contenders to acquire bankrupt Sintex Industries, said people with knowledge of the matter. RIL, in partnership with Assets Care & Reconstruction Enterprise (ACRE), has offered a ₹2,863 crore resolution plan that includes 10% equity to lenders, they said.
Reliance Industries-ACRE and Welspun Group unit Easygo Textile Pvt Ltd are the two highest bidders among the four firm offers that lenders have received for the textile-cum-yarn making company.
“There is a marginal difference between the offers made by Reliance Industries-ACRE team and Welspun Group,” one of the persons said. “Both are highest but conditional. It is difficult to assess which of the two plans is better.”
Resolution professional Pinakin Shah has asked the two highest bidders to resubmit revised unconditional resolution plans, said the people cited above.
The RIL offer includes payment of ₹2,280 crore to financial creditors, equity infusion of ₹500 crore for working capital requirements and a ₹83 crore payment to employees and trade creditors, one of the persons said.
₹15.4 cr Payment Default
The existing equity will be fully written off. RIL will hold 79%, ACRE will hold 11% and 10% will go to lenders after the acquisition. To finance the proposed offer, RIL will avail debt of Rs 2,349 crore and infuse Rs 500 crore as capital. ACRE, an Ares SSG-backed asset reconstruction company (ARC), will issue security receipts for Rs 14 crore to lenders. Details of the Welspun offer aren’t available.
Lenders to Sintex Industries got four firm resolution plans last month. GHCL Ltd and Himatsinka Ventures Pvt Ltd are the other two bidders, as reported earlier.
RIL, ACRE, Welspun Group and the resolution professional (RP) didn’t respond to queries. The RP has allowed claims to the tune of Rs 7,534.6 crore from 27 financial creditors.
Sintex Industries was admitted to the insolvency process by Invesco Asset Management after the company defaulted on a Rs 15.4 crore payment on principal and interest on non-convertible debentures.
An attempt to arrive at an out-of-court resolution failed after lenders rejected an offer of Rs 1,950 crore made by Welspun in January last year to acquire the distressed Ahmedabad-based company.
Lenders to Sintex Industries had got 16 expressions of interest (EoIs), including bids from foreign fund CarVal Investors and Varde Capital-backed Aditya Birla Asset Reconstruction Co. The other EoI applicants included Edelweiss Alternative Assets Advisors Ltd, Asset Reconstruction Company of India (Arcil), Prudent ARC, Ludhiana based Trident Ltd, Punjab-based Lotus Hometextile, Mumbai-based Indocount Industries and Nitin Spinners.
Sintex Industries, which was promoted by Amit Patel and family, specialises in the premium fashion industry. It provides fabric to global clients such as Armani, Hugo Boss, Diesel and Burberry, according to the company’s website.
