Hyderabad High Court on Friday said it would suggest the Andhra Pradesh government to explore possibilities of giving incentive to companies coming forward to purchase high-value properties of Agri-Gold company.
A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice S.V. Bhatt made this observation while hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Agri-Gold depositors seeking refund of their money.
It sought to know from the counsel for the intervenor (Essel Zee Group’s Subhash Chandra Foundation), if the latter was ready to buy any of the properties of Agri-Gold company.
The counsel said he would have to consult the Foundation’s owners before giving any assurance to the bench.
Estimated values
He presented a report to the bench containing estimated values of Agri-Gold properties secured through four different valuers. The bench noticed that the highest value accorded to Hailand property of the company was ₹550 crore, while the lowest was nearly ₹250 crore.
The judges felt the highest value of Hailand property and other assets appeared to be fair and can be fixed as the base price for inviting bids for auctioning the properties. The bench rejected the fresh proposal made by Agri-Gold company that it would sell off all the properties and fetch ₹8,500 crore if the bench permitted.
The counsel for the company L. Ravichander said instead of the distress sale, which was unlikely to fetch the money sufficient to pay back the depositors, the fresh proposal may be considered. The bench, however, turned down the proposal. Justice S.V. Bhatt remarked that since the hearing of the petition started, several persons were coming out with a magic wand solution, without an iota of responsibility.
AP seeks time
The AP government counsel sought two-week time to present details of all the properties of Agri-Gold. “Already we have encumbrance certificates of nearly 80 properties and those of 100 more assets would be secured soon,” he told the bench.
Lawyers Arjun and Kishore, who appeared for the petitioners, said they could not secure any specific valuations for the assets and would go by whatever finalised or accepted by the District Level Committees that were supposed to monitor auctioning of the properties.
The bench posted the petition to November 9 for hearing.