India Court Halts Billionaire Agarwal’s Plan to Acquire Videocon

Bookmark

Jul 19 2021, 6:53 PMJul 20 2021, 7:23 AMJuly 19 2021, 6:53 PMJuly 20 2021, 7:23 AM

(Bloomberg) -- An appeals court in India halted billionaire Anil Agarwal’s plan to take over Videocon Industries Ltd., after some creditors challenged the steep haircut imposed upon banks in the deal.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on Monday stayed a bankruptcy court’s verdict that approved the sale of Videocon Industries to Twin Star Technologies -- part of Agarwal’s Vedanta Group -- on an appeal by Bank of Maharashtra, said Chaitanya B. Nikte, the bank’s lawyer.

“Bank of Maharashtra is a dissenting creditor and one of the lead appellants objecting the approval with steep haircut,” he said. IDFC Ltd. has also appealed the approval, according to updates on the appeals court’s website.

Agarwal’s firm proposed to pay around 29.6 billion rupees ($395 million) to acquire Videocon Industries, which owed around $8.6 billion to creditors. Dissenting creditors and vendors to Videocon would not get any money under the plan, according to details in the bankruptcy court’s order.

The NCLAT will hear the case next in September, Nikte said. Emails to spokespersons of Vedanta and the lead lender to Videocon, State Bank of India, remained unanswered.