Hyderabad : A majority in the committee of creditors for Deccan Chronicle Holdings favour Srei Infrastructure Finance’s bids to take over the company, sources said.
Other than the flagship daily newspaper Deccan Chronicle, the company also publishes The Asian Age, Financial Chronicle and Telugu daily newspaper Andhra Bhoomi.
“… Majority lenders liked their (Srei Infrastructure’s) plan. Voting will be conducted tomorrow,” said a senior counsel involved in resolution proceedings for Deccan Chronicle Holdings.
Besides Srei Infrastructure, HT Media, Asianet Communications, Vision India Fund and Zee Group have also placed bids to acquire the troubled newspaper company, source said.
The deal to acquire Deccan Chronicle Holdings is expected to be valued at Rs 800 crore, the source said, without divulging further details.
The company has admitted claims worth Rs 8,222 crore, including from financial and operational creditors. There are 36 financial creditors including Canara Bank, Axis Bank, Andhra Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IFCI Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
In July 2017, the Hyderabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal admitted a plea filed by Canara Bank to initiate insolvency resolution process against the company.
The tribunal had given a breather of 70 days to complete resolution of the debt-hit company, in addition to the 270-day initial time period.
“We have to find a suitable bidder for the company before Tuesday,” the source said. “Many unsecured lenders are filing petitions to stall the resolution process. We are trying to close this at the earliest.”
The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle have a combined circulation of over 14.5 lakh copies in five states in southern India.
The group also operates Odyssey, a leisure store chain that offers lifestyle products in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi-National Capital Region.
