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Singaporean lender DBS Bank on Wednesday moved the NCLT seeking a higher payout from the ₹4,350-crore offer of Patanjali to take over the crippled edible oil firm Ruchi Soya.
An NCLT Bench comprising judges VP Singh and Ravikumar Duraisamy asked Ruchi Soya and DBS, which holds the first charge for the plant and the machinery of the indebted company, to file their detailed submissions by May 10.
Making its case for a re-look at the payout for financial creditors, DBS said, “If the company had gone for liquidation we would have got ₹217 crore, which is 90 per cent of the dues. But the Committee of Creditors has taken everyone equally and because of that we will get only ₹118 crore from the deal,” DBS informed the tribunal.
Detailed plan
Meanwhile, giving a detailed plan of its resolution for the target company, Patanjali informed the tribunal that of the ₹4,350-crore offer, it will borrow ₹3,233 crore from banks and ₹1,185 crore will come from internal accruals and other sources.
The fair value of Ruchi Soya is ₹4,161 crore, which owes over ₹9,345 crore to the lenders led by SBI.
Patanjali also said it has no plans to take the target company private by delisting. Instead it said initially it will own 98 per cent of equity and 1.7 per cent will be held by the public. But to meet the SEBI norm of 25 per cent public holding, within 18 days it will divest a little over 23 per cent to the public. As of now, the public hold 66 per cent in Ruchi Soya.
Haircut for lenders
On May 1, the NCLT gave Patanjali Ayurved time till May 7 to file a detailed resolution plan for Ruchi Soya. This happened after 96 per cent of the lenders agreed to Patanjali’s revised offer by increasing its bid by ₹190 crore to ₹4,350 crore. Its initial offer was ₹4,160 crore along with a ₹1,700 crore working capital.
The deal leaves the banks with a haircut of over 51 per cent of the debt.
The home-grown consumer goods player almost got a walkover after rival Adani Wilmar decided to pull out from the race. After the acquisition of Ruchi Soya, Patanjali will become a major player in soyabean oils and other edible oils.
Ruchi Soya owes over ₹9,345 crore to financial creditors led by the State Bank of India., which has an exposure of ₹1,800 crore, followed by Central Bank at ₹816 crore, Punjab National Bank at ₹743 crore and StanChart at ₹608 crore.
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