Adani Group to buy property near Delhi’s Mandi House for ₹400 crore

Adani Group has won a bid to acquire Aditya Estates Pvt Ltd through an insolvency process in a ₹400-crore deal. Aditya Estates holds a 3.4 acre of residential property near Delhi's Mandi House.

Adani Group has won a bid to acquire Aditya Estates Pvt. Ltd. through an insolvency process for a total deal value of Rs 400 crore. Aditya Estates holds a 3.4 acre of residential property near Mandi House in New Delhi. The Delhi-based principal bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has approved the resolution plan of Adani Properties to acquire Aditya Estates for Rs 265 crore. Another Rs 135 crore would go towards meeting the statutory charges, taking the total deal value to Rs 400 crore.

Aditya Estates’s committee of creditors, led by ICICI Bank UK Plc, had already approved by 93.01 percent vote share Adani’s Rs 400 crore offer, including an upfront payment of Rs 265 crore.

According to the list of resolution applicants submitted on June 27, 2019, nine applicants had shown their interests for the property, including NR Narayana Murthy, Malvinder Singh, Anil Rai Gupta, Paras Pramod Agarwal, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), Veena Investments, Welspun Logistics, Adani Properties and Panch Tatva Promoters.

However, only two of them—Adani Properties and Veena Investments—had submitted their resolution plans. The CoC rejected the Rs 225 crore offer from Veena Investments as it found it to be non-compliant and conditional. Besides, it did not take into account any liability that may arise from New Delhi Municipal Corporation for house tax, sales tax and income tax in the future.

The NCLT had on Feb. 26, 2019, admitted a plea filed by ICICI Bank UK Plc to initiate insolvency proceedings against Aditya Estates.

ICICI Bank UK Plc claimed to be a financial creditor of Aditya Estates on account of debt of $63 million granted to Assam Oil Co., an overseas company. It had contended that according to terms of debt asset swap agreement, Aditya Estates defaulted on debt repayments.

Aditya Kumar Jajodia, a shareholder of Aditya Estates, challenged the insolvency proceedings against the firm in NCLAT but his plea was rejected on Sep. 5, 2019.