Srei Infrastructure Finances promoter company, Adisri Commercial, may challenge the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)’s 22 December order upholding an NCLT order of October 2021, to initiate insolvency proceedings against two group companies, before the Supreme Court.
Adisri, which has a 60.36% stake in Srei Group, has challenged a Bombay High Court order of October 2021, which had also upheldthe NCLT verdict, before the apex court.
“The bench finds no merit in application for seeking condonation of 321 days delay in refilling appeals, the same is dismissed. Given the dismissal of the application for condonation of delay in refilling the appeal, both memos of appeals are rejected,” NCLAT bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising Barun Mitra, said on Thursday.
“The promoters will move the apex court in the matter,” a person in the know said, seeking anonymity. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the corporate insolvency resolution process under section 227 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, which allowed the Reserve Bank of India to supersede the company’s board for defaulting on loans under the financial service providers regulations.
In October 2021, RBI had taken the firm to the NCLT’s Kolkata bench, before initiating insolvency proceedings against two subsidiaries—Srei Infrastructure Finance, and its subsidiary Srei Equipment Finance, on issues of governance and defaulting on its loan repayments. RBI’s move was challenged by the promoters before the High Court, which dismissed the petition challenging RBI’s move to supersede the board of Srei Group’s non-banking financial firms.
“What they forget is they had more than ₹8,000 crore of related-party transactions that created a big hole. In this case, they have lost crucial litigation amid 16 other litigations that are underway against the company, which can derail the IBC process”, the person said.
“In the NCLT order, which was challenged in the Bombay High Court, the promoters alleged that the management acted in collusion with RBI under the financial service providers rules to take over the companies,” a second person said also seeking anonymity.
The two company had debt of ₹30,000 crore, including ₹20,000 crore in bank loans, and the rest through non-convertible debentures and external commercial borrowings.
