Realty developer Nila Spaces, one of the bidders of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services’ (IL&FS) commercial properties spread over 344,000 sq ft in an office tower GIFT TWO in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) has raised concerns over transparency in the auction process and the delay to conclude the same.
The non-banking finance company listed these properties for sale in February, with the auction being conducted via the Swiss Challenge process. The properties are held by Sabarmati Capital Two Ltd (SCTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of IL&FS Township & Urban Assets Ltd (ITUAL).
Once concluded this will be the biggest transaction for a single commercial tower in Gujarat.
The entire commercial tower has a total 540,000 sq ft space, of which some part was acquired by Infibeam Avenue in 2015. As per the Request for Proposals (RFP) released by IL&FS, Infibeam was allowed to match the highest bid to be received for these properties.
“We were informed verbally that Nila Spaces is the highest bidder and as per the RFP conditions, it was being forwarded to Infibeam for their right to match the highest offer. Subsequently on August 8, we received an official email from IL&FS informing us that our bid has been rejected without providing any valid reason and the furnished bank guarantee is being returned,” Deep Vadodaria, CEO, Nila Spaces, told ET.
IL&FS has stated the process has been conducted in a fair and transparent manner as per the RFP and any concerns in this regard are incorrect.
“The bids for sale of Gift City 2 asset were invited under the Swiss challenge (with Infibeam being the original bidder) wherein the bidders from the public were asked to submit their bids as per the RFP. As per the provisions outlined in the RFP, Infibeam had the ‘Right to Match’ the highest bid received through this process, which they have matched,” IL&FS said in response to ET’s query.
Accordingly, the highest bid of Infibeam has now been taken to the Committee of Creditors (CoC) for their approval, which is underway. This will be followed by the laid down process of seeking (Retd) Justice D K Jain’s and other applicable approvals. Meanwhile, the Earnest Margin Deposit (EMD)s of all unsuccessful bidders have been duly returned, the NBFC added.
ET’s email query to Infibeam remained unanswered until the time of going to press.
A total of 58 commercial offices spread across 21 floors of the tower along with appurtenant car parking slots have been put on the block on an as-is-where-is basis as part of this auction. These properties include four offices spread over 1.15 lakh sq ft that are already leased to Tata Consultancy Services.
SCTL was set up to develop commercial spaces in GIFT City and has built two towers with over 1.61 million sq ft total area. Of these, GIFT ONE has been operational since 2013, while GIFT TWO started operations in 2016.
GIFT TWO with a structure of a basement, ground floor and 28 upper floors holds 0.8 million sq ft. While the land belongs to GIFT City, the built-up area is held by subsidiaries of IL&FS. The land was leased to subsidiaries of IL&FS Group for a period of 99 years from 2013.
IL&FS has been monetising its assets with an objective to manage debt obligations. The failure of IL&FS to meet repayment obligations in September 2018 had triggered a liquidity squeeze that gripped India’s non-banking finance sector.
As part of a clean-up, the government then replaced the IL&FS board, which has since been making efforts to resolve the debt situation.
As per disclosures made earlier this year, IL&FS Group has addressed debt of over Rs 56,000 crore discharged aggregate debt worth Rs 36,000 crore across group companies. The group has retained its overall resolution estimate at Rs 61,000 crore.
