Lenders to Lavasa Corporation, a bankrupt hill city near Pune, have been left disappointed as none of the bidders for the company submitted a viable financial plan. The final bids were opened on Monday.
"There was not even Rs 5 crore upfront cash on the table," said a source close to the development. "The auction was a total disaster. The banks will have to now consider sending the company for liquidation."
A last-minute bid was made by Royal Partners, a Dubai-based fund, but this was not encouraging for the lenders as the fund had earlier backed out of another bankrupt company deal, the source said. A joint bid was made by Pune-based builder Aniruddh Deshpande and US fund Interups, but the banks were not enthused by the offer.
Haldiram Snacks, which showed interest in the first round, did not submit any final bid for the company that was sent to the bankruptcy court in 2018 after it defaulted on Rs 8,000 crore of loans.
As the demand for real estate dried up due to the pandemic, a few other bidders like Oberoi Realty dropped out of the race. UV ARC also pulled out after the Reserve Bank barred asset reconstruction companies from bidding for the company.
Originally set up by HCC in 2000, Lavasa was developed as a picturesque hill station near Pune. It defaulted on bank loans after the environment ministry issued a stop-work order to the project in 2010.
Hotels in the city were left with few takers and since the outbreak of Covid-19, even the weekend traffic to the township dropped to zero.
Axis Bank has made the biggest claim of Rs 1,266 crore against the company. The other lenders are State Bank of India.
The committee of creditors had earlier sought NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) permission to sell Lavasa as a consolidated entity, but still, it did not get good bids. The SBI has also sought a second forensic audit of the company as there were several complex transactions among the Lavasa group companies.
 "Lavasa")