• The COC has yet not sat after the NCLAT order. The delay is only affecting the creditors.

Mumbai, 07 February, 2022 (GPN): The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) recently asked the committee of creditors (CoC) to reconsider Piramal Capital and Housing Finance assigning a value of only ₹   1 to the bad loans of Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL), the bankrupt mortgage lender that Piramal acquired last year. The principal valuation of recoverable assets are set to around 38000 crore principally has been valued at Rs 1 to benefit Piramal capital and housing finance.

The recoverable assets of DHFL, now renamed Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, run into ₹   30,000 crore- ₹   40,000 crore, according to a petition filed by Jignesh Shah-led 63 Moons Technologies Ltd, which was heard by the NCLAT.

There have been number of properties developed, underdeveloped and huge land back too all over the country. It includes property in Pali Hill Bandra, BKC, plots in Juhu, a while Juhu Galli SRA project, huge agriculture land in Pune and other places, development projects with 25-30 builders and number of more properties and projects. All this have been valued at Rs 1. The RBI appointed administrator, COC has surpassed the value. The same has been stated by the NCLAT court. An independent body Knight frank was appointed that had valued the project way above 40000 crores.

The term in the resolution plan that permits the successful resolution applicant to appropriate recoveries, if any, from avoidance applications filed under Section 66 of the Code ought to be set aside. The resolution plan be sent back to the CoC for reconsideration on this aspect,” said a bench of Justices M. Venugopal and V.P. Singh, which heard the plea.

In its petition, 63 Moons questioned the “commercial wisdom” of the CoC in approving the resolution plan. Assigning a value of ₹ 1 means that the amount will be written off by the lenders and recovery, as and when it happens, will be credited to the resolution applicant Piramal Group, it pointed out.

Piramal Enterprises Ltd (PEL) bought the bankrupt DHFL in September 2021 by making an upfront cash payment of ₹ 14,700 crore to creditors.

Piramal made a total payment of ₹ 34,250 crore, which also included a debt instrument issuance of ₹ 19,550 crore. The creditors also received a total of ₹3,800 crore in cash that was with DHFL when the administrator took over the company for debt resolution.

Wholesale portfolio undervalued
The wholesale book portfolio has been grossly undervalued at approx. 9000 crores as on 31st March 2021.The two valuers appointed by the Administrator to determine the fair value and liquidation value of DHFL assigned nil value to the assets that were the subject matter of the avoidance applications filed before NCLT instead of ascribing some realistic value to the assets/money that may be recovered by pursuing the same. The fair value and liquidation value of DHFL being supressed to be approx. Rs.44,000 Crores and approx. Rs.27,000 Crores respectively.

A significant part of DHFL’s assets were thus locked in the avoidance applications such as luxury residential towers like Three Sixty West at Worli, projects with immense development potential like Juhu Galli Project.

Piramal in its resolution plan has also ascribed a value of only Re.1 to such valuable assets. Evidently, no value has been given for the Rs. 45,000 crores of assets that form the subject matter of the avoidance applications on the ground that the title is not clear and/or that security is not sufficient to cover the loans advanced.

Infact, erstwhile prompter Kapil Wadhawan by his letters addressed in 2020 had even offered to perfect title to the assets and give all the assistance required to the Administrator and COC to maximize the amount receivable to the COC; however, the Administrator by his letters continued to refer to the avoidance applications instead of taking an objective approach for the benefit of creditors.

The correct values of the said properties were also the basis of a resolution plan formulated by DHFL prior to CIR process in September 2019 (“2019 Plan”). The 2019 Plan was formulated by reputed agencies such as SBI Capital Markets and Ernst & Young (which continued to advise CoC/Administrator even during CIR process) and was based on the assets and potential of business of DHFL (based on valuation reports prepared by Knight Frank) and provided a detailed roadmap for payment of entire liabilities of about Rs.91,000 Crores.