The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday admitted Axis Finance’s plea to initiate corporate insolvency resolution process against Primat Infrapower and Multiventures Pvt. Ltd, a ZEE group company.
Axis Finance, one of the financial creditors to Primat Infrapower and Multiventures, had filed a Section 7 application under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, to initiate insolvency proceedings against the company for defaulting on dues worth ₹100 crore.
Axis Finance sanctioned a term loan of ₹100 crore to Primat in June 2018. The tenure of the loan was three years from the date of initial disbursement.
“We hold that the debt and default have been satisfactorily established from the records. We are also satisfied that a default of well over ₹1 crore has been committed by the corporate debtor (Primat), thereby satisfying the minimum threshold prescribed u/s 4 of the code,” said a bench led by Justice Kuldeep Kumar Kareer.
Devarajan Raman has been appointed as the interim resolution professional to oversee the day-to-day affairs of the company.
Counsels Nausher Kohli and Niyati Merchant on behalf of MDP & Partners represented Axis Finance, while advocate Harsh Behanya along with Prachi Sanghvi appeared for Primat.
In December 2023, the Bombay high court allowed Axis Finance to recover dues worth over ₹60 crore from another Zee group company—Cyquator Media.
Axis Finance, a non-banking subsidiary of Axis Bank, said in its petition that Cyquator had been defaulting on the interest payments since September 2019.
In April, the Bombay high court also dismissed a review petition filed by the promoters of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd challenging the December 2023 order.