NBCC says its bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech compliant, backed by government

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New Delhi: State-owned NBCC, which is in the race to acquire Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL), on June 13 assured stuck homebuyers that its bid is concrete, fully backed by the government and the PSU will complete over 20,000 pending flats on time as per the schedule.

A day before the start of the voting process, the two contenders NBCC and Suraksha held separate webinars on Sunday with hundreds of homebuyers to explain their resolution plans and address doubts of flat owners.

In the webinar, NBCC expressed confidence that it will get approval from Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) to hive off Yamuna Expressway to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and the transfer of 90% stake to bankers.

NBCC CMD PK Gupta said the company has improved its plan compared with its 2019 bid, by making provisions of 100 acre land for delayed penalty.

Gupta said there is no question of failure in case of the NBCC, which he said has the support from the government.

“Our plan is very concrete and everything is very clear. We cannot hide anything. We have tried to improve the plan from the last time,” Gupta said. “We get support from the government and we are responsible to the government,” he asserted.

The NBCC CMD said that tower-wise delivery schedules have been provided in the bid.

Stating that NBCC has a major presence in the Delhi-NCR market, Gupta said: “In no time we can mobilise technical and financial resources to start the projects.” He said there is no additional burden on the homebuyers in its resolution plans. “If we are not able to sell the land, we will still be able to complete their projects.”

NBCC’s Senior Executive Director (Project) Yogesh Sharma said NBCC has put a bid to acquire JIL, with “full backing of the government”.

He said 70% of the pending flats will be completed over the next two and a half years.

Sharma expressed confidence that bankers will support its bid as they did in 2019. He said the company is offering Rs 8,700 crore to banks as against the claim of Rs 9,782 crore.

“Jaypee Infra will become a subsidiary. There is no question that NBCC will not come in with resources,” he said while answering a query whether NBCC would infuse funds in case of shortfall.

On concerns raised by homebuyers that NBCC bid is non-compliant because of lack of approval of YEIDA for transfer of Expressway to bankers, Sharma said: “We are 2000 per cent confirmed that YEIDA will give the permission.” “I don’t know why everyone is worried,” he said, adding that the company would seek approval of YEIDA after it wins in the bidding process.

NBCC’s Chief General Manager (Finance) VK Choudhary also addressed various concerns of the homebuyers and urged them to vote for its bid.

In its final bid, NBCC has offered 1,903 acre land to bankers and 90% stake in Yamuna Expressway but will also take a debt of around Rs 2,000 crore against the road project.

On the other hand, Suraksha has offered to bankers over 2,500-acre land and nearly Rs 1,300 crore by issue of non-convertible debentures.

Last week, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) decided to put bids of both NBCC and Suraksha group to vote for acquiring JIL through Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

The CoC includes members of 13 banks and a representative of over 20,000 homebuyers. Flat owners have over 56 per cent voting share in the CoC. The voting process will start from June 14 and continue till June 23.

This is the fourth round of the bidding process in the matter of the JIL bankruptcy case. JIL went into the insolvency process in August 2017 after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an application by an IDBI Bank-led consortium.

In the first round of insolvency proceeding, the Rs 7,350-crore bid of Lakshadweep, part of Suraksha Group, was rejected by lenders. The CoC had rejected the bids of Suraksha Realty and NBCC in the second round held in May-June 2019.

The matter reached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and then the apex court.

In November 2019, the Supreme Court directed the completion of JIL insolvency process within 90 days and ordered that the revised bids be invited only from NBCC and Suraksha.

Then, in December 2019, the CoC approved the resolution plan of NBCC with a 97.36% vote in favour during the third round of the bidding process.

In March 2020, NBCC had got approval from the NCLT to acquire JIL. However, the order was challenged before the NCLAT and later in the Supreme Court, which on March 24 this year, ordered that fresh bids should be invited only from NBCC and Suraksha.

The apex court had also directed that the resolution process be completed in 45 days, which lapsed on May 8 and an application has been filed to extend the timeline for finding a buyer for JIL.