Debt-ridden finance firm DHFL's shares would be delisted from stock exchanges post acquirement by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, which has succeeded as the bidder for the company. As part of the declaration procedure under the liquidation and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), lenders led by Union Bank of India in January this year privileged the bid by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance to acquire the fraught housing finance firm.
Shares of DHFL would be delisted post gaining as per the IBC guidelines and Sebi delisting norms. The company may unite itself with DHFL for which call would be taken after all legal and regulatory clearances are obtained.
The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday gave its conditional approval to the Piramal Group's bid for DHFL.
The resolution plan had already received approvals from the RBI in February and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in April 2021. The tribunal, chaired by HP Chaturvedi and Ravikumar Duraisamy, said the approval is subject to the final judgment from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the Supreme Court's judgment on the plea of erstwhile promoter Kapil Wadhawan.
Last year, Wadhawan had made his settlement offer to the Committee of Creditors (CoC). The offer was rejected by the creditors, citing a lack of credibility and the valuations attached to the proposed asset sales. In the plan, Wadhawan had proposed to repay lenders by selling assets.
Piramal, states, “We are pleased with the judgment today by the NCLT for approving our resolution plan for DHFL. This follows the endorsement of 94 percent of lenders, and the subsequent approvals from RBI and CCI, and reiterates the strength and quality of our bid.' The approval from NCLT is a significant milestone in DHFL's resolution and an affirmation of the sanctity of the IBC process in India. Piramal is committed to partnering with all relevant establishments, regulators, creditors, and investors involved in this pledge and look ahead to a quick conclusion of the resolution process.”
DHFL had gone bankrupt with more than INR 90,000 crore in debt to various lenders, including banks, mutual funds, and individual investors who kept fixed deposits with the company. Turning the corner, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) on Sunday reported a consolidated net profit of INR 96.75 crore for the last quarter of the financial finished in March 2021. The company had posted a net loss of INR 7,507.01 crore in the January-March quarter of the year-ago fiscal. It had reported a loss of INR 13,095.38 crore in the December quarter of 2020-21.