Lanco Thermal Power receive a claim of Rs 24,000 crore

<p> </p><p> </p><p>Lanco Thermal Power, the holding company for investments in thermal power plants by Lanco Group, has received financial claims of Rs 24,000 crore, said two people with direct knowledge of the matte. <br><br>The NCLT’s Hyderabad chapter admitted the case for insolvency proceedings on May 9 this year. Andhra Bank moved the petition under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. <br><br>Parveen Bansal, designated partner of Delhi-based AAA Insolvency Professionals LLP, was appointed the resolution professional. Bansal confirmed the quantum of financial claims. Emails sent to individual lenders remained unanswered. Axis Bank declined to comment. <br><br>About 99% of the claims have been submitted by banks/financial institutions marked as indirect lenders, which extended loans to holding, subsidiary and associate companies. Most of these companies are undergoing insolvency process or are under liquidation. Direct lenders, with 1% of the claims, loaned funds to the holding company. <br><br>“The corporate debtor secured these loans by extending corporate guarantee or by pledge of share investments,” an executive linked to the resolution process said. Lanco Thermal Power also invested in a 10MW hydel plant located in Himachal Pradesh. <br><br>With no single bidder officially submitting any interest to buy all the assets, lenders may have to wait for liquidation to receive their dues. Bids were sought on July 24. “Preliminary interest has been shown by investors for submission of expression of interest. Nothing can be said at this stage about their seriousness for investments.” <br><br>Financial institutions are likely to meet this week to figure out the future course of action. “Diversity of assets of the corporate debtor under resolution is a challenge,” said another executive involved in the process. “It has to be seen whether these financial creditors would be able to recover funds in the resolution process or at the liquidation stage.” <br><br>Lanco Group had invested more than Rs 6,000 crore in the shares of the borrowing companies. The petitioner – Andhra Bank - mentioned that the Lanco group entity had secured funds based on three of its major assets - Lanco Amarkantak Power Ltd of 1,320 MW, Lanco Babandh Power of 1,320 MW, and Lanco Vidharbha Power of 1,320 MW. <br><br> </p><p>Referred from economic times</p>

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