MCA begins inspection of Deepak Kochhar's NuPower Renewables

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) started an inspection on Friday into the filings made by Nupower Renewables, a company owned by Deepak Kochhar, since its inception in 2008, for violations of the Companies Act, if any.

The MCA’s Mumbai office has sought details of investments made into the company, including by Videocon, and sought valuation reports based on which it received investments from overseas.

The inspection of documents by MCA started after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started a preliminary enquiry into the company getting a Rs 640-million loan received from Videocon Industries after ICICI Bank extended a Rs 32-billion loan to the latter in 2012.  The probe will cover all the entities related to NuPower and its promoter, including Pacific Capital Services, Pinnacle Trust and Supreme Energy. Deepak Kochhar is married to ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar.  

The investments by the Kanodia family of Datamatics into Nupower’s compulsorily cumulative convertible preference shares (CCPS) via a Mauritius-based entity is also under the scanner. The Kanodias invested Rs 3.25 billion in NuPower in 2011 and 2012, and exited two years later without making any profit or loss.

The Kanodias sold their shares in NuPower to Mauritius-based DH Renewables, which in turn, is owned by Accion Diversified Strategies Fund of Cayman Island. The ultimate investors of DH Renewables and Accion are not known to regulatory authorities. DH Renewables converted the CCPS into NuPower’s equity shares, based on a valuation done by Price Waterhouse in December 2016.

In a statement on March 28, the ICICI Bank board had given a clean chit to its MD. The board was, however, not informed about the investment made by Kanodia-owned Firstland Holdings of Mauritius, as it was not violating any conflict of interest guideline, a source close to the development said.

The NuPower matter is currently under investigation by multiple regulators. The market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is looking into possible lapses of disclosure and corporate governance norms by ICICI Bank. The regulator has sought documents from the bank on decisions of its board of directors on the loan. 

The income-tax department has also written to the governments of Mauritius and Cayman Island, seeking details on the investors of NuPower. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started an enquiry into the loan sanctioned to the Videocon group and others by ICICI Bank, which was part of a consortium of lenders.

The ED has written to the Sebi, seeking information on the Videocon group. It also asked for details of the investigation into the group’s activities in the past few years — especially investments made by DH Renewables. The enforcement agency will also approach the Reserve Bank of India for details on disclosures by ICICI Bank about its dealings with Videocon.

Though media reports said the Reserve Bank of India has given a clean chit to Chanda Kochhar in 2016, the banking regulator has not made any public statement as yet.