MUMBAI: Creditors to the defunct Lavasa Corp, which was once touted as India’s first private hill town project, have set an eligibility criteria of ₹100 crore net worth and a ₹25 lakh refundable deposit for new expressions of interest (EOIs) from prospective bidders as they try to find a buyer for a second time after junking the previous attempt earlier this year.
The minutes of the meeting of the committee of creditors (CoC) held on September 17 show that 77% of lenders led by Union Bank of India (UBI) have agreed to a minimum criteria for bidders which is a change from the last time the process ran without any eligible criteria to “maximise participation” of applicants.
“Besides this eligibility criteria, lenders also want to make certain changes with most likely a new resolution professional (RP) in place of Shailesh Verma and a process advisor to make way in place of Deloitte as both have been in charge for long and has presided over a what has been a failed process prior to this,” said a person aware of the matter.
A joint lenders forum (JLF) called by UBI is expected to finalise timelines and appointment of a new RP as early as next week as lenders pick up the pieces after many twists and turns in the case. “Lenders want to ensure that there are no loose ends as they start after the previous experience. Broadly it has been agreed that a new Form G inviting interest from new applicants be issued which could be in the first week of October.
The lenders are also zeroing on a couple of names for a new RP,” said a second person aware of the discussions. Verma and lead lender UBI did not reply to an email seeking comment.
Union Bank holds 12% of total dues of ₹6,642 crore. Phoenix ARC is the second largest creditor with close to 11% of the total debt which it bought from L&T Finance, just before the plan was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal in July 2023. Also owning more than 10% is another bad loan aggregator Arcil. Bank of India and Axis Bank are the other large creditors each owning more than 8% of the debt.
Earlier this month after a full year of hearings, the Mumbai bench of the NCLT allowed revival of the insolvency allowing the CoC to exclude the period from July 13, 2021, to January 3, 2022, from the resolution process.
In a 36-page order, the two-judge bench of Kuldip Kumar Kareer and Anil Raj Chellan said that the successful resolution applicant Darwin Platform Infrastructure (DPIL) had failed to implement the approved resolution plan by paying the ₹100 crore upfront amount without any justifiable reasons and hence no purpose would be served by granting further time for implementation of the resolution plan.
