OBC drags L&T Halol Tollway to NCLT to recover dues of Rs 78 cr

State-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce on Wednesday said it has taken L&T group to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and has initiated a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CRIP) against L&T Halol-Shamlaji Tollway.

"OBC has filed insolvency and bankruptcy application under section 7 of the IBC Code, 2016 against L&T Halol-Shamlaji Tollway Ltd for default in repayment of Rs 76.69 crore on December 27, 2018," the bank said in a release.

The Gurugram-headquartered lender said that it had disbursed Rs 155 crore in 2009 under a common loan agreement by a consortium of lenders and institutions which included Allahabad Bank (as lenders' representative and escrow bank).

"The loan account turned non-performing asset (NPA) and the financial creditors, along with other lenders, entered into a master restructuring agreement in 2017 with L&T Halol-Shamlaji Tollway for conversion of debt of Rs 405.83 crore into equity, out of total debt of Rs 1003.55 crore payable to the consortium of lenders," OBC said.

The bank further said that it has given a recall notice on September 12, 2018 to the company as it failed to comply with the conditions under the restructuring agreement, demanding repayment of Rs 78.28 crore within 7 days.

"Since L&T Halol-Shamlaji Tollway failed to repay the loan, OBC moved the NCLT with a plea to initiate CRIP and NCLT, Chennai vide order dated July 19, 2019 admitted the petition for initiation of CRIP against the company," it said.