JC Flowers highest bidder for Satavahana Ispat debt

Hyderabad: JC Flowers ARC, has been declared the highest bidder for Hyderabad-based Sathavahana Ispat Ltd debt Lenders Consortium. Sathavahana Ispat Limited, listed on both BSE and NSE, owes more than Rs 1,000 crore debt to a consortium of four lending banks - led by Canara Bank.

The debt is classified as NPA in the books of the lenders for more than 3 years. The company is engaged primarily in manufacturing Ductile Iron Pipes and Pig Iron. The company also has a metallurgical coke plant, according to a media release.

The lenders are trying to maximise the recovery by taking advantage of the recent surge in steel prices. Steel prices are currently at an all time high. The consortium, comprised of Canara Bank, SBI, Union Bank and IFCI, called for a bid for sale of the debt of the company to which it received 4 bids.

The consortium has evaluated the merits of all the bids and formally selected JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Private Limited as the H1 bidder. As next steps and in accordance with due process, it has proposed to now run a Swiss challenge process to maximise value (optimise the offer and discover better price for the lenders).

Among the major public sector banks, State Bank of India (SBI) has the highest amount of NPAs at over Rs 1.49 lakh crore; Canara Bank (Rs 37,041 crore); Union Bank of India (Rs 49,085 crore). IFCI has gross NPAs of Rs 7,774 crore. Total NPLs of banks in India as on March 31, 2020 stand at Rs 8.96 lakh crore.