LENDERS FILE INSOLVENCY CASE AGAINST DIAMOND FIRM SHRENUJ

MUMBAI: Century-old diamond house Shrenuj and Co., which had the late Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur as its brand ambassador, is facing insolvency proceedings. State-owned Bank of India has approached the bankruptcy court against the company for defaulting on ₹226 crore.

The counsel representing the consortium of 17 lenders, Pooja Karadia, told the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday that Shrenuj’s debt of ₹1,113 crore had turned bad on March 31, 2016, and there is an admitted liability.

“Bank of India is the lead banker to whom the company owes over ₹226 crore and to the consortium of 17 banks, most of them are nationalized, the company owes over ₹1,113 crore,” said Karadia, adding that the company was given enough opportunity to give representations, but they have not even filed their response in the tribunal.

The banks have proposed the name of Hiten Parikh as interim resolution professional in the matter. While countering the lenders’ argument, advocates representing the firm sought time to file its reply.

The presiding officer, MK Shrawat, directed the parties to produce the firm’s audited accounts before the court and said that Shrenuj can file its reply to the insolvency plea filed by the lenders by September 6, the next date of hearing. Email queries and phone calls to the firm did not elicit any response till press time. Aditya Birla group brings years of operational expertise across sectors which we will leverage to potentially turn around distressed situations. However, as a strategy, we will not look at very large deals such as those in Reserve Bank of India’s initial list of 12 cases referred to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Our strategy will be to focus on the midmarket space where we see lot of value. We are open to all kind of strategies including minor- There is no defined limit on investments per se. The minimum stipulation is ₹100 crore to capitalize the asset reconstruction company which we have. Beyond that, we will keep evaluating capital requirements as opportunities come to us.

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