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Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)NCLTA revised and improved resolution plan submitted by the Darwin Platform Infrastructure for the revival of Lavasa Corporation, which was formed after independence to build India’s first modern hill city.
A revised plan was submitted after the tribunal directed the lenders to Lavasa Corp to consider equitable distribution to the winning bidder Darwin Platform Infrastructure of the proceeds from the sale of the township developer and its two units. The tribunal had said in that order that secured creditors cannot secure their dues at the cost of statutory dues.
A division bench comprising judicial member Kuldeep Kumar Kareer and technical member Shyam Babu Gautam approved a resolution plan of Rs 1,814 crore as against Rs 1,601 crore proposed earlier.
In its 25-page order, the tribunal said, “Considering the resolution plan fulfills the statutory requirements as mandated under the Resolution Plan Code (IBC) as well as the rules, we approve the same.” “The Resolution Professional is further directed to hand over all records, premises/documents to the Resolution Applicant (Darwin Platforms) to finalize further action required to commence operations as contemplated under the Resolution Plan.”
In February, the tribunal had also directed the winning bidder to submit a revised plan to the resolution professional (RP). This was to be placed before the lenders for consideration.
The revised plan was approved by the lenders with over 84% voting. The revised plan envisages a graded payment of Rs 1,814 crore to lenders against total sanctioned liabilities of Rs 7,965 crore.
Akshat Khaitan, Founder, AU Corporate & Legal Advisory Services, Mumbai, said, “Approval of resolution plans by NCLT is always a welcome step as it is a step towards achieving the objective of IBC, which is value maximisation.”
The scheme provided Rs 1,152 crore for secured creditors (20% of their claims), Rs 5.57 crore (59%) for employees and Rs 22.50 crore for working capital investment. An amount of Rs 1.96 crore is statutory dues. This is 20.50% of the amount claimed by the State Revenue Department and will result in an equal proportion of recovery for financial creditors.
Established in 2000 under the leadership of Ajit Gulabchand hccLavasa was developing the country’s first privately developed hill town spread over 20,000 acres in Mulshi and Velhe areas of Maharashtra’s Pune district, about 180 km from Mumbai. However, the project has been embroiled in various issues including environment clearance and land acquisition problems, resulting in delayed payments to lenders.
The NCLT accepted Lavasa for debt resolution in August 2018, and in February 2020, it approved a consolidation proposal involving two wholly owned subsidiaries, Varasgaon Assets Maintenance (WAML) and Dasway Convention Center (DCCL).
When the company was accepted under insolvency resolution, HCC held 68.7% stake in the company. Avantha Group holds 17% stake in Lavasa, Venkateswara Hatcheries 7.8% and Vitthal Maniyar 6.3%.
