EoI invited from prospective bidders of UNI; 31 Aug last date for submission
Resolution Professional Pooja Bahry has invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from prospective resolution applicants to submit Resolution Plans for United News of India (UNI) Ltd.
The last date for submission of EOIs is 31 August 2023. The tentative date for issuance of the provisional list of prospective resolution applicants (PRAs) is 10 September, and the date for the final list of PRAs is 15 September.
United News of India has been one of the leading multilingual news agencies in the country, and the resolution professional is making every effort to revive the news agency so that UNI can obtain a successful, viable, and feasible resolution plan under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
It is worth noting that employees of UNI initiated corporate insolvency resolution proceedings against the news agency after it defaulted on a payment of Rs 103 crore, which includes over Rs 102 crore in employee dues.
So far, creditors of UNI have submitted claims of Rs 128.6 crore, of which Rs 122.75 crore has been admitted by the resolution professional. Of the admitted claims, employees have claims of Rs 102.57 crore, and Rs 19.57 crore were admitted as government dues.
UNI was incorporated in 1959 as a non-profit organization, and it had subscribers such as The Hindu, The Times of India, Amrit Bazar Patrika, and Hindustan Times. However, the news agency began to experience financial difficulties when some of its major subscribers stopped subscribing to its services.
A major blow to UNI came in 2020 when the government-owned Prasar Bharati stopped subscribing to its services. UNI used to bill Prasar Bharati Rs 57.5 lakh per month. Prasar Bharati withheld 25% of this amount from April 2016, and in October 2020, it terminated the contract.
An arrear payment of Rs 7.81 crore is still outstanding from Prasar Bharati to UNI. The board of the news agency has been taking steps to recover the money.
All of these events led to the accumulation of over Rs 103 crore in liabilities, most of which are dues to employees. This forced the Employees of United News of India, an employee union, to file a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to recover the money.
Also See: Employees union drags news agency UNI to insolvency court
