Court appoints Knight Frank as consultant in NSEL case

Assignment is to bring individual or corporate buyers for defaulters' properties

To speed up the liquidation of attached properties of defaulters of National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), the sessions court has appointed Knight Frank India as a global consultant to bring in buyers.

In 2014, NSEL had made a similar attempt and finalised two global consultants — Knight Frank and Colliers International — to identify competent buyers to dispose of immovable properties of Mohan India, the largest borrower defaulter of NSEL. In first such instance, Mohan India had agreed in 2014 to empower the ‘competent authority’ to liquidate their immovable properties to recover their dues.

The sessions court order assumes significance as it would expedite liquidation of NSEL defaulters’ properties and pay dues of the trading clients (investors). Being a global real estate consultant, Knight Frank is expected to bring individual and corporate clients with high bid amount.

“After the lengthy discussion, the court is of the view that allowing private broker Knight Frank to bring their clients or proposed buyers and to allow them to participate in the auction process will not cause any hurdle in the auction process. On the contrary, it will facilitate in realising maximum amount of the properties subject to liquidation,” said D P Surana, special judge of MPID (Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors) Act Court and additional sessions judge of City Civil & Sessions Court, Mumbai.

The court, however, ordered the ‘competent authority’ to pay brokerages along with taxes to Knight Frank within 30 days in case its bids are approved with the highest quotes. Ajit Sakhare, deputy collector, government of Maharashtra, is the competent authority appointed by the Bombay High Court for the NSEL case.

Meanwhile, the competent authority had put for auction properties of Mohan India with its 14,000 sq yard of land in New Delhi and 500 acres of land at Bikaner in Rajasthan. The auction was scheduled to take place on Tuesday. According to sources, New Delhi-based Mittal Co has bid for Mohan India’s Delhi-based property with an offer price of Rs 140 crore, while its property in Bikaner attracted no buyers.

According to NSEL website, Mohan India has a total payment obligation of Rs 545.38 crore as on March 14, 2016. Various government agencies, however, has attached properties of the company. Also, the Bombay High Court in its order dated December 1, 2014 passed an injunction of its properties worth Rs 1,037.84 crore (including its associate company Tavishi Enterprises) in favour of NSEL.

“We have to approach the court for the next move. We have not received any bid for some of the properties put for auction,” said Sakhare.