Receiver For Golden Forest Assets Sale
The Mumbai High Court has appointed a receiver to oversee sale of assets of Golden Forest, the plantation company which owes investors in excess of Rs 1,000 crore, almost half the total dues payable by the entire plantation schemes industry.
The receiver will oversee the sale of properties valued at about Rs 441 crore and the sale would be used to repay investors their monies, said Sebi officials.
"The high court has on Thursday appointed Justice ML Pendse, a retired high court judge as the receiver for properties to be sold of Golden Forest to repay investors. The directors have been asked to pass a resolution for the sale of these assets which include land, health resorts, golf clubs etc. The company has been asked to obtain all necessary approvals for the sale of these properties which would enable investors to get their money back," said Sebi executive director (legal) Dharmishta Raval.
Golden Forest is planning to go in appeal against the High Court order and sought a stay on the order for two weeks, but the stay was rejected.
Sebi had filed a public interest litigation against Golden Forest following complaints received by investors on defaults by the plantation companies in repaying investor dues.
Despite being the regulator, Sebi had been forced to file a PIL as at that point of time it did not have powers to regulate plantation companies.
Subsequently, of course plantation companies were brought within the ambit of Sebi. It had directed plantation companies to register with it but only a handful of them have actually even applied. Golden Forest accounts for almost half of the total dues of all plantation companies put together.
"The appointment of a receiver is a major step forward as Golden Forest accounts for half the total dues by the industry. We are trying to see if other plantation companies can also work out some schemes of repayment of dues," said Raval.
In fact, as per Sebi regulations, if a plantation company is not registered with the regulator, then it must wind up the scheme and pay investors dues. There are close to 700 plantation companies on which Sebi has information. Of these barely 20 schemes have applied for provisional registration and these are in the process of being given approval.