Chennai: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) slammed the lenders of Reliance Communications (RCom), especially the State Bank of India, for painting a rosy picture of the Anil Ambani-owned telco’s asset sale plan.
The sale plan which had turned out to be false, saw the NCLAT questioned why action shouldn’t be taken against the joint lenders group that gave a false impression that the RCom-RJio deal would fetch about Rs 37,000 crore.
“SBI created false impression, gave a rosy picture before us,” the two-member NCLAT bench, headed by chairperson SJ Mukhopadhyay observed. The bench was hearing a plea by RCom seeking the tax refund be released in favour of Ericsson.
The appellate tribunal pulled up SBI for not releasing the Rs 260 crore income tax returns lying with it, which could be used by RCom to pay Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson.
The appellate tribunal said the country’s largest lender had worked with the telecom player. “You (SBI) have failed. JLF has failed. No sale took place. You clapped with RCom and claimed that you would recover around Rs 37,000 crore from sale to Jio. You cited losses of crores per day. You failed and now will seek to recover Rs 260 crore,” the bench observed.
The release would help RCom to clear a part of its Rs 550-crore dues to Ericsson. The Supreme Court had, on 20 February, held RCom chairman Anil Ambani and two others guilty of contempt for violating its order by not paying dues of Rs 550 crore to Ericsson. The apex court had said that they would face a three-year jail term if the company failed to pay up within four weeks.
RCom has already deposited Rs 118 crore with the Supreme Court. Moreover, it has asked lenders to release the income tax refunds of Rs 260 crore directly to Ericsson. The company is planning to raise Rs 200 crore to pay Ericsson Rs 550 crore including interest.
“Why should SC orders not be respected? Sending someone (Anil Ambani) to jail will not solve the problem before us. The SC has directed the company to repay the money,” NCLAT observed.
It also reminded the lenders that once the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) begins, lenders would not get the Rs 260 crore since it would go to the corporate debtor.
The NCLAT had earlier halted insolvency proceedings against RCom after the case was admitted by the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on 15 May, 2018. The apex court had on 23 October asked RCom to clear the dues by 15 December, 2018.
On 4 February, the NCLAT had allowed Ericsson to file its reply on RCom’s plea for withdrawal of the appeals. The appellate tribunal had also directed the company not to sell, transfer or alienate any moveable or immovable property of the company without the prior permission of the NCLAT.
| As it happened |
| The deal which never was pulled off saw many things get to the DoT and conditions being made by Reliance Jio.In January, while the Rs 17,000-crore pact covered four wireless assets, the spectrum was at the heart of the proposed RCom-Jio deal. It was said it will allow Jio to strengthen its 4G airwave holdings and help RCom pare its Rs 46,000-crore debt by paying off financial lenders besides operational creditors such as Ericsson.
RCom already sold fibre and nodes to Jio for Rs 5,000 crore, said another report quoting an executive as saying, “This announcement will stop all speculation that it (the deal) was off the table.” But the deal fell through the holes as nothing productive came from the deal and the matter eventually was taken to the Supreme Court. |