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Informist, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal Monday rejected petitions filed by Abhijit Realtors & Infraventures Pvt. Ltd., Creative Channel Advertising & Marketing Pvt. Ltd., and others against Sapphire Media Ltd.'s resolution plan for debt-ridden Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd., the owner of BIG FM, one of India's largest radio networks with 58 stations. The appellate tribunal said that the petitioners' claim that Sapphire Media was an "ineligible" applicant in the insolvency process of Reliance Broadcast did not hold.

 

The appellate tribunal said there was no "material irregularity" in the insolvency resolution process conducted by the resolution professional of Reliance Broadcast. It further said it did not find any merit in the appeals by Abhijit Realtors and others, and consequently dismissed them.   

 

In February 2023, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had admitted insolvency proceedings against Reliance Broadcast on a petition by IDBI Trusteeship Services Ltd. In November, the committee of creditors to Reliance Broadcast approved the resolution plan submitted by Sapphire Media with a favourable vote of 88.97%. Reliance Broadcast was a subsidiary of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

 

On May 6, the tribunal approved Sapphire Media's resolution plan for Reliance Broadcast. According to the plan, Sapphire Media will pay INR 2.61 billion to Reliance Broadcast's creditors against the total claims of INR 9.48 billion.

 

Abhijit Realtors, the unsuccessful resolution applicant, had said that in October 2023, the committee of creditors of the debt-ridden company had decided to undertake negotiations with the resolution applicants on the financial proposal in their respective resolution plans by way of an online challenge process. Thereafter, the reserve price for participating in the challenge process was fixed at INR 2.40 billion, and in addition, the incremental amount for putting a bid was in multiples of INR 100 million. 

 

In the challenge process, the highest bid received in round 1 was INR 2.41 billion. However, Abhijit Realtors said that the declaration of INR 2.41 billion as the highest bid was not in accordance with the note given in the challenge process. Abhijit Realtors said the given bid was irregular as INR 2.41 billion bid had to be an increment amount in multiples of INR 100 million from the reserve price of INR 2.40 billion.

 

Creative Channel Advertising, another unsuccessful resolution applicant, said in its petition that the resolution professional of Reliance Broadcast was culpable for grave irregularities and illegalities in the insolvency process of the company. Due to the negligence and misconduct of the resolution professional, the plan put forth by Sapphire Media was sanctioned, despite factual disqualification as per the eligibility criteria given in the invitation of expression of interest for Reliance Broadcast, said Creative Channel Advertising.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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