Media production house Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd has been admitted into bankruptcy after defaulting on a bank loan.
The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowed starting bankruptcy proceedings against the company on Friday on a petition filed by Central Bank of India.
The state-run lender said that the media company had failed to pay Rs 27.57 crore of a Rs 30-crore loan.
According to the NCLT order, the company was classified as a non-performing asset in September 2017.
The NCLT appointed Vijendra Kumar Jain as the interim insolvency professional to carry out the resolution process.
The Mumbai-based company was founded by Markand Adhikari and late Gautam Adhikari. It was once known for popular television shows that it produced for a few TV channels. It later also launched its own channel. In 2005, the company sold its SAB TV channel to Sony.
As per the company’s latest annual report, it had total debt of Rs 175.68 crore at the end of March 2019.
Apart from Central Bank of India, its other lenders include Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and Punjab National Bank.
The company's consolidated net loss for 2018-19 widened to Rs 52.50 crore from Rs 44 crore the year before while operating revenue slumped to Rs 15.24 crore from Rs 57.5 crore.
The company said in its annual report that its performance was impacted because of “various market conditions and business scenario”. As a result, the company defaulted on its debt.
According to the NCLT order, some lenders had granted loans to the company against hypothecation of programme rights and pledge of shares.
The total value of the pledged shares at the time of creation of the pledge stood at Rs 52.14 crore. The shares were sold for Rs 21.62 crore when they were invoked on September 27 this year.
