Shaw Wallace Set To Wind Up 2 Subsidiaries

The Manu Chhabria group is finally winding up two subsidiaries of flagship Shaw Wallace business subsidiaries -- Gandhinagar Electronics (formerly Shaw Wallace Electronics) and erstwhile lightings bluechip Genelac.

As a last step to the liquidation of the two companies, the Mumbai High Court is now appointing two official liquidators for the subsidiaries, group sources said.

Both companies had run into financial strife in the early 1990s after defaulting on loans to its banking consortium, as a result of which lenders took a decision to stop sanctioning fresh loans to the entire group.

Gandhinagar Electronics, which saw a change in name to de-link it from the Chhabria group, was referred to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) two years back. BIFR had appointed ICICI as the operating agency. The company and its factory been closed for a better part of the last two years now.

A scheme of rehabilitation had been submitted to ICICI, but it was submitted by the company was rejected by them. Thereafter, BIFR directed ICICI to advertise for a change of promoter. However, ICICI had found no takers for the electronics companies, thereby forcing it to recommend winding up operations and liquidating the company.

Gandhinagar Electronics had posted losses of Rs 2.24 crore during 1999-2000, taking its accumulated losses to Rs 30.77 crore. While Gandhinagar Electronics is an electronics supplier to television manufacturers, Genelac was into lighting equipment.