Rajani Associates has recently acted as legal advisors/retainers to the Resolution Professional of Ariisto Developers Pvt. ltd. (“Corporate Debtor”) whose resolution plan was approves by NCLT, Mumbai Bench on 23rd March, 2021.
Overview of the Assignment-
The Corporate Debtor is now reowned real estate company in Mumbai. It was debt-ridden to the extent of approximately INR 2,200 crores (22 billion) and hence, admitted to the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) under IBC on November 20, 2018. The proposed project of the corporate debtor had development potential of lakhs of square feet of area. The resolution plan of INR 1,650 crores (1.65 billion), as approved by the committee of creditors, is hybrid plan where the stakeholders would be given upfront cash consideration (INR 370 crores) as well as a share of the commercial area of the project (8,00,000 sq. ft.)
The Firm’s Role-
During the retainership as legal advisors, the Firm had filed and defended various applications for and on behalf of the Client across various forums including the NCLT, NCLAT, IBBI as well as the Supreme Court of India; attended various Committee of Creditors meetings and clarified various queries as were put by the CoC members as well as by the Client; advised the Client on critical issues arising during the corporate insolvency resolution process including general process advisory; undertaken due diligence of various expression of interests, resolution plans and other compliance documents received from prospective resolution applicants and prepared convenience tabular summaries for ease of understanding of the Client and strategized for expediting the plan approval and adjudication of pending applications process before and even during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Highlights of the assignment-
This resolution was one of the largest resolutions of a real estate company in Maharashtra. Approximately 350-400 homebuyers would benefit from the approval Plan since the project was stuck for more than a decade due to litigation. Till date, the Firm has successfully represented the Client in about 6-7 Applications filed at NCLT, Mumbai Bench, 1 Appeal filed at NCLAT, 1 Complaint filed with the IBBI and 1 Appeal filed with the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in addition to the process related work undertaken by us.
