Singaporean lender DBS seeks more payout from Ruchi Soya deal

MUMBAI, May 8: Singaporean lender DBS Bank

Wednesday moved the NCLT seeking a higher payout from the Rs

4,350-crore offer by Patanjali to take over the crippled

edible oil firm Ruchi Soya.

An NCLT bench of judges VP Singh and Ravikumar

Duraisamy asked Ruchi Soya and DBS, which holds the first

charge for the plant and the machinery of the crippled

company, to file their detailed submissions by May 10.

Making its case for a relook at the payout for

financial creditors, DBS said it enjoys the first charge for

the plant and the machinery of Ruchi Soya which owes Rs 243

crore to it through an external commercial borrowing.

“If the company had gone for liquidation we would have

got Rs 217 crore, which is 90 percent of the dues. But the

committee of creditors has taken everyone equally and because

of that we will get only Rs 118 crore from the deal,” DBS

informed the tribunal.

Meanwhile, giving a detailed plan of its resolution

for the target company, Patanjali informed the tribunal that

of the Rs 4,350 crore offer, it will borrow Rs 3,233 crore

from banks and Rs 1,185 crore will from internal accruals and

other sources.

The fair value of Ruchi Soya is Rs 4,161 crore, which

owes over Rs 9,345 crore to the lenders led by SBI.

Patanjali also said it has no plans to take the target

company private by delisting. Instead it said initially it

will own 98 percent of equity and 1.7 percent will be held by

the public. But to meet Sebi norm of 25 percent public

holding, within 18 days it will divest a little over 23

percent to the public. As of now the public hold 66 percent in

the crippled Ruchi Soya.

On May 1, the NCLT had given Patanjali Ayurved time

till May 7 to file a detailed resolution plan for Ruchi Soya.

This happened after 96 percent of the lenders agreed

to the revised offer made by Patanjali to take over Ruchi Soya

by increasing its bid by Rs 190 crore to Rs 4,350 crore. Its

initial offer was Rs 4,160 crore along with an Rs 1,700 crore

working capital. The deal leaves the banks with a haircut of

over 51 percent of the debt.

Homegrown consumer goods player almost got a walkover

after rival Adani Wilmar decided to pull out from the race

late last year despite being the highest bidder. With the

acquisition of Ruchi Soya, Patanjali will become a major

player in soyabean oils and other edible oils.

In December 2017, NCLT had referred Ruchi Soya for

insolvency on applications moved by Standard Chartered Bank

and DBS Bank and appointed Shailendra Ajmera as the RP.

Patanjali, the lone player left, had last month

increased its bid value by around Rs 140 crore to Rs 4,350

crore. The offer excludes capital infusion of Rs 1,700 crore.

Ruchi Soya owes over Rs 9,345 crore to financial

creditors led by the State Bank, which has an exposure of Rs

1,800 crore, followed by Central Bank at Rs 816 crore, Punjab

National Bank at Rs 743 crore and StanChart at Rs 608 crore.

Ruchi Soya has many plants and its leading brands

include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold

and has one of the best functional and the largest

infrastructure for soyabean,” Patanjali’s Tijarawala said, as

the reason revising the bid upwards.

Adani Wilmar, which sells edible oil under the Fortune

brand, was the highest bidder last August after a long-drawn

battle with Patanjali. Adani Wilmar had then said the process

was getting delayed as Patanjali moved the Mumbai NCLT.

The Haridwar-based Patanjali, which was clocking

multi-fold growth in recent years, saw a marginal growth in

FY18, hit by GST, finishing at around Rs 12,000 crore. In FY17

it had a turnover of Rs 10,561 crore, registering 111 percent

growth. (PTI)
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