Business conglomerate Jaiprakash Group has defaulted on a loan of Rs 4,059 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing on January 7, 2023. This default amount reported till December 31, 2022, includes Rs 1,713 crore of principal amount and Rs 2,346 crore interest, the company, which owns embattled real estate company Jaypee Group, said in the filing.  These loans were in the form of fund-based working capital, non-fund based working capital, term loans and foreign currency convertible bonds.
Among the lenders to the company are Axis Bank Limited, Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, ICICI Bank Limited, Export-Import Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank Limited, IFCI Limited, The Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited, The Karur Vysya Bank Limited, DBS Bank, Life Insurance Corporation of India, The South Indian Bank Limited, Punjab and Sind Bank, State Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank, SIOBI, Indusind Bank Limited, HDFC , UCO Bank, Indian Bank, Yes Bank, ACRE Limited, ARCll and Punjab National Bank.
Recall here that an appeal for insolvency by private lender ICICI Bank against the flagship company is also pending with the Allahabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) since 2018. In September public lender SBI also moved the NCLT against JAL, claiming a total default of Rs 6,893.15 crore as on September 15, 2022.
In December, Dalmia Cement entered into an agreement to acquire JAL’s cement, clinker and power plants spread across Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh for an aggregate enterprise value of Rs 5,666 crore.
“In order to repay the loans of lenders and concentrate in its other core areas of working, JAL has decided to divest from the cement business completely. With the sale of cement capacity of 9.4 mtpa in favour of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) ltd. (DCBL), we hope and pray having demonstrated its creditable working, JAL will further ‘cement’ its credentials of being a trustworthy organization in the infrastructure segment of the country in times to come”, Manoj Gaur, executive chairman, JAL, said as part of the deal announcement.
As part of its strategy to reduce debt, JAL had sold over 20 million tonne per annum cement capacity to Aditya Birla group firm UltraTech Cement between 2014 and 2017.
