Rs 52 crore from 10 liquidated firms provided to creditors

CHENNAI: The assets of 10 private companies closed down due to debt burden, non-performance or other reasons were distributed to creditors on Tuesday by the official liquidator under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

The event was headed by the present official liquidator K Thirumalaimuthu, Justice D Krishnakumar and regional director of the ministry, M R Bhat.“When I assumed office in May 1, I had a detailed discussion with the liquidator on how to clear the pending cases of companies under liquidation. A total of Rs 71 crore was the amount that had to be distributed initially. Around Rs 19 crore has been distributed until now and the rest of Rs 52 crore will be given to respective creditors today,” said MR Bhat.

Creditors, who got back their money included secured creditors such as banks who had lent money to the companies, unsecured creditors such as suppliers, customers, contractors and other creditors such as government agencies.

Around Rs 52 crore was distributed to 10 creditors, out of which the SBI received the highest of Rs 16 crore.

Justice Krishnakumar observed that three months ago when he took charge of the company law department, petitions from  396 companies were pending in court. “Out of the total pending cases, 51 were pertaining to companies that were yet to be dissolved. But now, we have managed to clear 22 such companies. In the coming weeks, the remaining 18 cases will be taken up as well,” said the judge, who added that it was the first time that so many cases were cleared in a short span of three months.