Hyderabad: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Hyderabad has declared GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL) bankrupt, initiating the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). This comes after GVK Coal Developers (Singapore) Pvt Ltd failed to repay the loan, including interest, amounting to Rs 18,000 crore to ICICI Bank and several other banks where GVKPIL acted as a guarantor.
The NCLT bench issued the order on July 12, which was released on Monday. The petition was filed by ICICI Bank in 2022.
Senior counsel K Vivek Reddy, representing ICICI, referenced a London court judgment from October of the previous year to support the insolvency proceedings against GVKPIL. “The first default occurred in February 2017 and remains unresolved. GVKPIL, as the guarantor for the loan taken by GVK Coal, is liable. The London court confirmed this liability and given GVK’s failure to make any payments, bankruptcy is the necessary course of action,” he said.
In September 2011, ICICI Bank (Dubai, Bahrain, and Singapore branches), along with Bank of Baroda (Ras Al Khaimah), Bank of India (London and Singapore), and Canara Bank (London), sanctioned a term loan facility of Rs 8,356 crore and a letter of credit for Rs 292 crore to GVK Coal for acquiring coal mines in Australia. Additional term loans of Rs 367 crore were sanctioned by other banks in March 2014, later increased to Rs 2,089 crore.
Violation of facility agreements
In March 2016, ICICI Bank discovered that GVK Group intended to reportedly sell its stake in Bangalore International Airport Limited without lender consent, violating the facility agreements. The banks filed an injunction application in a London court in April 2016, where GVK undertook not to sell its stake in Bengaluru airport.
Due to continued nonpayment of the loan, the lender banks filed claims before the London court for Rs 5,915 crore under Facility Agreement-I and Rs 1,236 crore under Facility agreement-II. In November 2020, ICICI Bank invoked its corporate guarantee, demanding Rs 5,000 crore towards principal and interest from GVKPIL. GVKPIL expressed its inability to honour the payments but committed to repaying after negotiating a solution with the Adani Group, requesting the bank to refrain from taking action.
However, ICICI Bank proceeded to approach the NCLT in 2022 to initiate insolvency proceedings against GVKPIL. On July 12, the NCLT determined that as of June 13, 2022, GVKPIL was liable for Rs 15,576 crore, comprising Rs 9,463 crore in principal, Rs 6,113 crore in interest, and Rs 1.23 crore in agency fees. Satish Kumar Gupta has been appointed as the interim resolution professional to advance the CIRP.
