The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chennai, has approved MGM Healthcare managing director M.K. Rajagopalan’s ₹423-crore bid to take over Appu Hotels Limited. Appu Hotels owns and operates Le Meridien in Chennai and Coimbatore.
In 2020, the NCLT had admitted an insolvency petition against Appu Hotels in a case filed by the Tourism Finance Corporation of India Limited.
The plan proposes to pay 100% dues of secured and unsecured financial creditors. As per admitted claims, the dues of secured financial creditors was ₹340.43 crore and that of unsecured financial creditors was ₹49.13 crore.
However, it does not propose to pay dues of unsecured financial creditors and operational creditors who are related parties to the erstwhile promoter of Appu Hotels. The admitted claims of related unsecured financial creditors was ₹45 crore and that of related operational creditors was ₹2.37 crore.
The plan also proposes to pay ₹1.87 crore to trade creditors, and ₹2.79 crore towards employee/workmen dues. It has also allocated ₹3.86 crore towards statutory claims, though no claim was received from any statutory authority.
The plan also set aside ₹2.90 crore for the insolvency process cost, and ₹22.02 towards two contingency funds to meet out any contingency expenses being incurred after the approval of the plan.
Mr. Rajagopalan has mobilised ₹150 crore, and for the remaining ₹273 crore, has already tied up for funding from one of the nationalized banks, as per the legal filing.
