Creditors face challenges recovering from Jaiprakash Associates
Creditors of Jaiprakash Associates (JAL) will need to intensify their efforts to recover dues from the company's hotel, cement, and real estate businesses in Delhi, Agra, Noida, and Mussoorie. Documents revealed that the personal guarantees provided by the bankrupt infrastructure and real estate conglomerate's promoters are insufficient to cover their liabilities.
Manoj Gaur, the chairman and promoter of JAL, provided total guarantees of about Rs 7.78 billion, which account for less than 2% of the group's Rs 520 billion dues. This bankruptcy case was admitted to court early last month following a petition filed by ICICI Bank in 2018.
Bankers noted that the guarantees by chairman Gaur and vice-chairman Sunil Kumar Sharma, amounting to nearly Rs 8 billion, are of little consequence after nearly seven years since the company was first referred to bankruptcy by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2017 among the 26 large defaulters of bank loans during that period. One banker mentioned that personal guarantees are merely a comfort for banks and depend on the assets shown by promoters, which in this case were assessed years ago. Therefore, they are not relying heavily on these guarantees. Instead, there are still some working assets, such as hotels, cement, or real estate properties, that can potentially be monetised for some recovery to creditors.
Documents filed by the interim resolution professional (IRP) Bhuvan Madan indicate that the State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest creditor, with provisional admitted dues of more than Rs 150 billion, followed by ICICI Bank with Rs 92.04 billion. The assets in which lenders have a first charge include JAL-owned hotels in Agra, Noida, Delhi, and Mussoorie, five cement units in Churk, Rewa, Sadwa Khurd, and Chunar, and the company's land holding in Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Area near Noida.
A second banker noted that the guarantees by the promoters act as a form of insurance, as invoking personal insolvency has both civil and societal implications.
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