Officials said the Srei group had sent the proposal to the RBI for review a few months back. Arena is an institutional asset manager providing solutions for capital seekers in special situations
based in singapore Makar Capital Partners It was also proposed to bring about Rs 2,200 crore.
And Mails were sent to both Arena and Makra on the matter last Saturday, but both the companies did not respond till Tuesday evening.
Srei’s board of directors and the Strategic Coordination Committee for Capital Raising, headed by an independent director, have accepted the proposals and sent them to the regulator for approval, Hemant Kanoria, former chairman of Srei Infrastructure, said on Tuesday.
It is not clear at this time whether the RBI finds Arena or Makra sufficiently suitable to acquire the country’s core sector lender Srei, or if it prefers a domestic company to take the credit. The RBI has taken steps to transfer the credit to the bankruptcy court so that lenders and bond holders can recover their money from the credit. Their cumulative exposure is around Rs 31,000 crore.
At least 11 investors showed interest in Srei, while Arena and Makra submitted non-binding terms to a non-bank lender.
Some of them included Verde Partners, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Apollo Global. He could not be immediately reached for comments.
The group had approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with a repayment plan to flow to all its creditors. The scheme proposed to pay the entire dues in a structured manner to all the creditors. Most of the lenders did not accept this scheme.
After the filing of the plan in October 2020, banks led by UCO Bank took control of the company’s cash flows. Banks have recovered around Rs 3,000 crore since November last year.