With the Subhash Chandra Foundation putting forward a new proposal that it would buy off all the assets of Agri-Gold company, the Hyderabad High Court on Friday asked the responses of the depositors on it. The HC also sought the opinions of the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Agri-Gold company and the bankers who lent loans to the company on the proposal in writing.
Observing that the hearing in Agri-Gold case reached a crucial stage, a Division Bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice S.V. Bhatt asked all the stakeholders to present their responses in detail on the proposal. The take-over of Agri-Gold company’s assets, after it ran into financial crisis and depositors moving the HC for return of their money, had been taking twists and turns.
A few months ago, the SCF came forward stating that it would acquire assets of the company in crisis but eventually backtracked on it. Again it approached the HC claiming that it was ready to take over the assets of the company. This time, the SCF said it would purchase all the assets of the company for nearly ₹4,000 crore but would pay back the depositors and others over a period of next four years.
The Foundation maintained that the present values of Agri-Gold assets was around ₹2,000 crore. In the next four years, the properties are likely to fetch nearly ₹4,000 crore. The Bench said that there were three options before all the stakeholders. “Accept the proposal in toto, reject it or accept it with some modifications,” the Bench observed.
The lawyer for the petitioners, N.S. Arjun Kumar, submitted to the Bench to direct the Foundation to first deposit ₹500 crore keeping in mind the Foundation’s earlier proposals and withdrawals which left the depositors worried. He said that the Foundation can think of returning depositors’ money within a year instead of taking four years.
The lawyer said that the process of acquiring the assets, refund of deposits and the entire takeover proceedings must be monitored by a committee constituted by the High Court for transparency and to inculcate a sense of security among the depositors.