India court allows billionaire Anil Agarwal to takeover Videocon

Mumbai: India’s bankruptcy court has allowed billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Twin Star Technologies to takeover Videocon Industries Ltd.

Videocon’s shares will be delisted as part of the plan submitted in December, the company told the stock exchange late Tuesday. Twin Star, a part of Agarwal’s Vedanta Group, will pay about 30 billion rupees ($410 million) to Videocon’s lenders, people familiar with the matter had said earlier.

The company will put up 5 billion rupees within 90 days and the rest as non-convertible debentures over a period of time, they said, asking not to be identified as the details aren’t public. Vedanta Group didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. Lenders had the bankruptcy court’s approval in December for the resolution plan submitted by Twin Star.

Videocon, a consumer durables company manufacturing air-conditioners to washing machines, was among the first 12 companies pushed into bankruptcy after directions from the Reserve Bank of India in 2017. Indian banks have been battling unpaid loans for the past couple of years and the country is saddled with one of the worst bad-debt ratios in the world.

The conglomerate’s protracted debt resolution underscores the challenges facing Indian lenders to recover their money amid a severe pandemic that threatens to add to the bad loans.

Videocon’s debt stood at over 635 billion rupees in 2019, according to bankruptcy case related disclosures on the company’s website. Out of this, 574 billion rupees was owed to over three dozen banks and other financial creditors.