Ruchi Soya: Lenders to vote on Patanjali\'s Rs 4\,350 cr bid next week

Ruchi Soya: Lenders to vote on Patanjali's Rs 4,350 cr bid next week

Patanjali, the lone player left in contention after the exit of Adani Wilmar, had last month increased its bid value by around Rs 200 crore to Rs 4,350 cr

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

Patanjali
Patanjali

Lenders of debt-ridden will vote on April 30 to decide on Baba Ramdev-led Ayurved's revised Rs 4,350 crore bid for the edible oil firm, sources said.

This excludes capital infusion of Rs 1,700 crore into the company.

Sources said the Committee of Creditors (CoC) met on Friday to discuss the revised bid of and decided to conduct the voting process on April 30.

In December 2017, the (NCLT) had referred for proceedings on the application of financial creditors Standard Chartered Bank and

was appointed as resolution professional (RP) to manage the affairs of the company and undertake the proceedings.

Ruchi Soya Industries owes around Rs 9,345 crore to financial creditors and another Rs 2,750 crore to operational creditors.

Among financial creditors, the (SBI) has the maximum exposure of around Rs 1,800 crore, followed by Central Bank of India Rs 816 crore, Rs 743 crore and Standard Chartered Bank - India Rs 608 crore.

Ruchi Soya has many manufacturing plants and its leading brands include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold.

"We have revised our bid to Rs 4,350 crore from earlier offer of Rs 4,160 crore. We are ready to bail out Ruchi Soya which has the biggest infrastructure for soyabean. It's a national asset," Patanjali's spokesperson S K Tijarawala had said last month.

The decision to increase the bid was taken in the interest of all stakeholders, including farmers and consumers, he had said.

Adani Wilmar, which emerged as the highest bidder in August last year after a long drawn battle with Patanjali, had in December 2018 written to the RP regarding significant delays in resolution process that led to deterioration of Ruchi Soya's assets.

Later, Adani Wilmar, which sells edible oil under the Fortune brand, withdrew from the race.

had then said the process was getting delayed as the group moved the NCLT, Mumbai.

had approached challenging the decision of Ruchi Soya's lenders to approve Adani Wilmar's Rs 6,000 crore takeover bid.

Patanjali group came second with its bid of around Rs 5,700 crore, including the infusion of about Rs 1,700 crore into the edible oil company.

First Published: Fri, April 26 2019. 17:09 IST