Ruchi Soya insolvency: Lenders to vote on Patanjali's Rs 4,350-cr offer next week

Lenders of debt-ridden Ruchi Soya will vote on April 30 to decide on Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved's revised Rs 4,350 crore bid for the edible oil firm, sources said.

Patanjali, the lone player left in contention after the exit of Adani Wilmar, had last month increased its bid value by around Rs 200 crore to Rs 4,350 crore for the Madhya Pradesh-based Ruchi Soya.

This excludes capital infusion of Rs 1,700 crore into the company.

Sources said the Committee of Creditors (CoC) met on Friday to discuss the revised bid of Patanjali and decided to conduct the voting process on April 30.

In December 2017, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had referred Ruchi Soya for insolvency proceedings on the application of financial creditors Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank.

Shailendra Ajmera was appointed as resolution professional (RP) to manage the affairs of the company and undertake the insolvency proceedings.

Ruchi Soya Industries owes around Rs 9,345 crore to financial creditors and another Rs 2,750 crore to operational creditors.

Among financial creditors, the State Bank of India (SBI) has the maximum exposure of around Rs 1,800 crore, followed by Central Bank of India Rs 816 crore, Punjab National Bank Rs 743 crore and Standard Chartered Bank - India Rs 608 crore.

Ruchi Soya has many manufacturing plants and its leading brands include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold.

"We have revised our bid to Rs 4,350 crore from earlier offer of Rs 4,160 crore. We are ready to bail out Ruchi Soya which has the biggest infrastructure for soyabean. It's a national asset," Patanjali's spokesperson S K Tijarawala had said last month.

The decision to increase the bid was taken in the interest of all stakeholders, including farmers and consumers, he had said.

Adani Wilmar, which emerged as the highest bidder in August last year after a long drawn battle with Patanjali, had in December 2018 written to the RP regarding significant delays in resolution process that led to deterioration of Ruchi Soya's assets.

Later, Adani Wilmar, which sells edible oil under the Fortune brand, withdrew from the race.

Adani Wilmar had then said the process was getting delayed as the Patanjali group moved the NCLT, Mumbai.

Patanjali Ayurved had approached NCLT challenging the decision of Ruchi Soya's lenders to approve Adani Wilmar's Rs 6,000 crore takeover bid.

Patanjali group came second with its bid of around Rs 5,700 crore, including the infusion of about Rs 1,700 crore into the edible oil company.