Vedanta, Jindal Power among 14 entities bidding for SREI Infra Fin, SREI Equipment Finance

Vedanta Limited and Jindal Power Limited are among 14 entities/persons who have expressed their interest in acquiring Srei Infrastructure Finance and Srei Equipment Finance Limited, the company said in an exchange filing.

Both the entities were referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under section 227 read with section 239(2(zk) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 (for initiations of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process.

Under the insolvency law, an insolvency application against a financial institution can only be filed by the RBI on behalf of the creditors.

Other entities which have shown interest include Star Asia Group (Lead Partner) with Charlestown Capital Advisor, Edelweiss Alternate Asset Advisors Ltd, Singapore-based VFSI Holdings Pte, Arena Investors and a consortium of Shon Randhawa (as lead partner) and Rajesh Viren Shah of Mukand Ltd.

The list of 14 also includes Diameter Trading Private Ltd, a consortium of Riddhi Siddhi Gluco Biols (as Lead Partner) with Sherisha Technologies private Ltd, and a clutch of asset reconstruction companies such as ARCL, JM Financial ARC, Prudent ARC, Asset Care & Reconstruction Enterprise Ltd and International Asset Reconstruction Company Pvt Ltd.

These entities would now be required to file their resolution plan with the administrator – Rajneesh Sharma, ex-Chief General Manager, Bank of Baroda. The administrator reserves the right to make changes in the above list based on documents submitted by the prospective resolution applicants.

The central bank initiated the insolvency proceedings against the two NBFCs after a consortium of lenders led by UCO Bank sought RBI’s directions on pursuing recovery of dues from the Srei Group after loans worth about Rs 30,000 crore was identified as non-performing assets (NPA) this quarter.

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The companies was already under stress for over last one and half years, In November 2020, the RBI had initiated an audit of its books and had identified certain borrowers with loans worth Rs 8,576 crore as connected or related parties.

List of entities