Central Bank Among 11 Entities Filing Bids For Future Enterprises Assets
Eleven entities have expressed their interest in bidding for either the whole or parts of Future Enterprises (FEL), which is burdened with debt. Among them are stressed asset aggregator JC Flowers, non-banking finance companies Capri Global and Authum Investment & Infrastructure, investment company Kotak Alternate Asset Managers and the lead creditor Central Bank of India. This information was confirmed by multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Lenders have split the assets of the company into three groups: its stakes in insurance ventures, textile businesses and other residual stakes. Authum, Capri and JC Flowers have expressed interest in bidding for the whole company or all three clusters.
Central Bank, Mumbai-based dredging, shipping and finance group M Pallonji & Co, Kotak Alternate Asset and Delhi-based financial consultancy Globe Capital have all bid for the company's insurance stake.
GHV India, a Gujarat-based company, is the only bidder for the second cluster of investments which includes FEL's 39 per cent stake in two textile companies, design and Apparels and Goldmohur Design and Apparels.
Kotak Alternate had expressed interest but did not provide the necessary deposit of Rs 10 crore.
Three other entities: Brescon Realty from Mumbai, Orissa Metaliks which is a metal company and Uniworth Finlease, a financial services company based in Mumbai - have submitted bids for the third cluster which includes all the remaining investments of the company, including the two manufacturing units located at Tarapur in Palghar district of Maharashtra and Mahadevapura, a suburb of Bengaluru.
Top executives from Authum, Capri and Central Bank have confirmed expressing interest in submitting a formal resolution plan.
According to one of the bidders, the company holds a 25 per cent stake in both life and general insurance companies, which is the main reason for the interest among the bidders. Even those who have bid for the entire company are eyeing the insurance stake since it provides them with an entry into the fast-growing insurance business.
The resolution professional (RP) Avil Menezes will now call for formal proposals from the bidders within the next month. Despite sending an email seeking comments, Menezes did not reply.
FEL, a company that owes a total of Rs 13,540 crore to 26 creditors led by the Central Bank of India and its arm Centbank Financial Services, has had its bidding process restarted. Last month, the lenders had rejected the Rs 301 crore offer by Kolkata-based steel tubes and pipes maker Jindal (India), as it amounted to just above 2 per cent recovery on the total admitted claims.
