Adani Infrastructure & Developers Pvt. Ltd has submitted a non-binding offer to take over Jaypee Infratech Ltd, throwing a spanner in state-run NBCC (India) Ltd’s efforts to buy the debt-laden developer.
Jaypee Infratech said in a filing with stock exchanges on Wednesday that the company’s insolvency resolution professional has circulated the unsolicited offer to its Committee of Creditors, which will next meet on Thursday.
Jaypee did not reveal any details of the bid made by the billionaire Gautam Adani-led group company. However, two media reports said, citing people familiar with the matter, that Adani Infrastructure had made an offer to pay at least Rs 500 crore upfront. Lenders will receive Rs 23 crore from the amount offered, and the rest of the money will be given to employees and operational creditors, per a Business Standard report.
Adani also offered 1,000 acres of land to Jaypee’s lenders and Rs 1,700 crore to construct houses for homeowners, according to the report. Jaypee owes creditors more than Rs 9,800 crore.
News of the bid comes more than a week after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal annulled voting by Jaypee’s creditors on NBCC’s bid to acquire the developer. A three-member bench of the NCLAT headed by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya asked the lenders to conduct fresh voting from May 31, the report said.
The tribunal’s decision came in response to a plea by IDBI Bank, which is the biggest lender to the company and has an 18% voting share. IDBI had opposed the bid saying that the offer was conditional upon the grant of approval to transfer Jaypee unit Yamuna Expressway’s business to NBCC. Originally, the voting process for the offer was supposed to have ended on May 19, with the outcome being declared the next day.
NBCC had offered Rs 5,000 crore for Jaypee Infratech's land parcels. The state-owned firm also offered to sell unsold homes to Jaypee’s secured financial creditors.
Earlier this month, the committee of creditors rejected bid by a Suraksha Realty-led consortium to acquire Jaypee. At the time, the rejection left NBCC as the only company in contention to buy Jaypee.