DHFL pushes back release of Q2 results; new date to be announced later

Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) formally put off its board of directors' meeting, earlier scheduled for Monday, to approve the second quarter (June-September) financial results.

The new administrator appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) needs to first have a detailed discussion with the statutory auditors. DHFL told the stock exchanges the revised date for the meeting would be intimated in due course. The RBI superseded the board over governance concerns and default on payment obligations; R Subramaniakumar was made the administrator. The RBI also appointed a three-member advisory committee to assist the administrator. The three are Rajiv Lall, non-executive chairman at IDFC First Bank; N S Kannan, managing director at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, and N S Venkatesh, chief executive, Association of Mutual Funds in India.

“The administrator and the advisory committee will require some time to formulate the working modalities,” DHFL stated.

The RBI intends to soon initiate the process under the Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority Rules, 2019. The regulator will also approach the National Company Law Tribunal for appointment of the administrator as the formal insolvency resolution professional.

In the first quarter, the company reported a net loss of Rs 242.5 crore, from a net profit of Rs 431.7 crore in the same period a year before. Total income fell to Rs 2,400 crore, from Rs 3,154 crore. DHFL has been struggling with liquidity for more than a year; it has defaulted on debt repayment in the past. The loan book at end-July was Rs 95,615 crore.

The management had proposed that 2.3 per cent exposure to various categories of lenders — banks, bond holders, National Housing Bank, external borrowing, perpetual debt, commercial paper, subordinate debt — be converted into equity at Rs 54 a share, following which the creditors would have a collective 51 per cent stake. The lnders did not agree and RBI decided to step in. The lenders are working on a new plan.