The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has sought an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) from the Hong Kong-based SPGP Holdings (HK) Ltd, which had earlier evinced interest in the debt-ridden RTIL (formerly Reid & Taylor (India) Ltd).

On Monday, the tribunal asked the HK-based investor to state how much money the company can deposit as EMD. SPGP has to submit its reply tomorrow, when the hearing continues at the tribunal.

Earlier during the day, NCLT’s Mumbai bench had sought an EMD of ₹50 crore from SPGP to qualify for submitting the resolution plan. However, the company’s counsel Karl Tamboli sought time to discuss the same with the company. The tribunal, which granted time till tomorrow, also asked the investor to be present in the court. Apart from SPGP Holdings, UK-based Boustead Plc had also expressed its interest in bidding for RTIL.

Fresh salvo

Separately, the RTIL Employees Welfare Association has shot off a fresh salvo to the chairperson of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), alleging that financial creditor Finquest Financial Solutions would be the sole beneficiary in case the company goes in for liquidation.

This is because the financial creditor holds the ‘first charge’ over the assets of the company and other financial creditors do not have any hold over the said assets, the letter said.

“However, if the company is revived through a resolution plan, the amount to be received from the said process would be distributed amongst all the financial creditors proportionately depending on their respective stakes and, accordingly, Finquest would be entitled to receive only a portion of the amount and thus they would be deprived of the benefits they are expecting to derive out of the liquidation process,” it added. BusinessLine has reviewed a copy of the letter, while a spokesperson of the employees association also confirmed that the letter was sent to IBBI Chairperson MS Sahoo.

Earlier last week, the employees’ association had accused the Resolution Professional (RP) and financial creditor of trying to stall its resolution process. In a letter to the IBBI, the association had alleged that the RP and Bharat Patel, a creditor, were “hand-in-glove”, intending to liquidate RTIL.

Finquest had made a ₹815-crore bid against RTIL. Earlier, nearly 200 employees of RTIL formed an association to scout for potential investors and revive the company. More importantly, the move was also said to prevent liquidation of the firm.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW