NBCC may sweeten Jaypee Infra bid, but not to banks’ taste

By Rituraj Baruah

New Delhi, Dec 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) State-run NBCC (India) is likely to sweeten its bid to acquire the insolvent Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL) and may enhance the offering from its current 1,428 acres, but sources say, it will not give out as much land as sought by the lenders.

People in the know said that the lenders have asked NBCC, formerly known as National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd, to offer 1,903 acres. Also, in the meeting of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) held here on Thursday, the financial creditors of JIL asked the public sector enterprise to offer a debt-free Yamuna Expressway, but according to sources, NBCC would not oblige them on this count.

As per NBCC's resolution plan, it would transfer Yamuna Expressway to the lenders, prior to which it would take a debt of around Rs 2,500 crore for completion of the stalled projects.

"NBCC would only increase the land offered to the lenders, but cannot relent on the demand for a debt-free (Yamuna) Expressway, as the loan would be required to complete the flats," an official source said.

NBCC has already enhanced its land offering to the lenders to 1,426 acres worth Rs 5,001 crore, from 950 acres in its previous bid. The land offered includes 760 acres in Agra and 666 acre in Tappal, Uttar Pradesh.

Further, banks have also been offered 50 per cent of the profits generated from the sale of unclaimed real estate units. Also, its resolution plan says that if the mortgaged land of Jaypee Associates Ltd (JAL), the parent of JIL, is made available to the JIL, free from all charges and encumbrances, then around 75 per cent mortgaged land shall be transferred to the banks.

In another move to sweeten its bid, reversing its offer on the unsold inventory, the NBCC has decided to keep the unsold units of JIL with itself and monetise them on its own, rather than leaving it to the bankers.

Earlier the NBCC had offered to transfer JIL's unsold residential inventory to lenders at Rs 1,700 crore, before revising it to Rs 1,300 crore.

The distressed home buyers also have asked the Navratna company to shorten the timeline for completion of projects and to earmark more land for compensation for the delays to home buyers.

NBCC has to submit a revised bid by December 3.

This is the third time that resolution plans have been sought to acquire and complete the projects -- over 20,000 flats -- of Jaypee Infratech. The other bidder in the fray is Mumbai-based Suraksha Realty Ltd.

The Supreme Court had on November 6 ordered completion of the JIL insolvency resolution process (IRP) within 90 days and said only the resolution plans of the NBCC and Suraksha would be considered by the CoC for completing pending projects.

(Rituraj Baruah can be contacted at rituraj.b@ians.in)

Source: IANS