Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Private Limited (“JC Flowers”) before the NCLT (Mumbai bench) for admission of a petition seeking the initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Proceedings against Reliance Innoventures Private Limited (“Corporate Debtor”), one of the ultimate holding companies of the Reliance ADA Group.
This application was filed by the original lender Yes Bank Limited through SAM & Co. under section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”) on 18 July 2020. The default amount was approximately INR 100 crores and the cumulative debt due was INR 1000 crores, consisting of term loans and non-convertible debentures. In December 2022, Yes Bank assigned the debt to JC Flowers.
The Corporate Debtor denied the fact of existence of default basis, inter alia, wrongful adjustment by Yes Bank of the sale proceeds of certain pledged shares invoked and sold by Yes Bank and of such sale being conducted at alleged ‘undervalue’ in the manner of a ‘fire sale’. It was further contended that the action was barred under Section 10A of the IBC (in relation to Covid era defaults).
The NCLT rejected the above contentions of the Corporate Debtor, and the petition was admitted on 15 June 2023.
SAM & Co. team was led by Veena Sivaramakrishnan, Partner; Ameya Gokhale, Partner; Parth Gokhale, Partner; Kriti Kalyani, Senior Associate; and Gaurav Karwa, Associate.
Crawford Bayley & Co advised Reliance Innoventures Private Limited.
About Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.:
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., founded on a century of legal achievements, is one of India’s leading full-service law firms. The Firm’s mission is to enable business by providing solutions as trusted advisers through excellence, responsiveness, innovation, and collaboration. SAM & Co. is known globally for its exceptional practices in mergers & acquisitions, private equity, competition law, insolvency & bankruptcy, dispute resolution, capital markets, banking & finance, and projects & infrastructure.
The Firm has a pan-India presence and has been at the helm of major headline transactions and litigations in all sectors, besides advising major multinational corporates on their entry into the Indian market and their business strategy. Currently, SAM has around 750 lawyers including 161 Partners, offering legal services through its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurugram, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
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