Former SBI official appointed member of advisory committee of SIFL & SEFL

The RBI Venkat Nageswar Chalasani, former Deputy Managing Director of SBI, as a member of the Advisory Committee of SIFL and SEFL on Thursday

The Reserve Bank on Thursday appointed Venkat Nageswar Chalasani, former Deputy Managing Director of SBI, as a member of the Advisory Committee of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited (SIFL) and Srei Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL).

After superseding the boards of SIFL and SEFL in October last year, the RBI had appointed a three-member advisory committee to assist Rajneesh Sharma, the administrator of the two crisis-ridden firms.

"Consequent upon resignation of R Subramaniakumar from the Advisory Committee with effect from June 22, 2022, it has been decided to appoint Shri Venkat Nageswar Chalasani as a member of the Advisory Committee with immediate effect," the central bank said in a statement.

The Advisory Committee shall advise the Administrator in the operations of the SIFL and SEFL during the corporate insolvency resolution process, it added.

The other two members of the committee are: T T Srinivasaraghavan (former Managing Director, Sundaram Finance Limited) and Farokh N Subedar (former Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary, Tata Sons Limited).

In October 2021, the RBI had filed applications for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process against SIFL and SEFL at the Kolkata Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal.

Following admission of the petitions by the NCLT, the RBI had decided that the three-member committee "shall continue as the advisory committee" constituted under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Insolvency and Liquidation Proceedings of Financial Service Providers and Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2019.

Srei Group, which mainly caters to the MSME and infrastructure sectors, owes around Rs 18,000 crore to around 15 lenders, including Axis Bank, UCO Bank and State Bank of India, and another nearly Rs 10,000 crore of external commercial borrowings and bonds.

In a regulatory filing earlier this month, Srei Equipment Finance had said its administrator has received a report from the transaction auditor about certain fraud transactions in 2019-20 and 2020-21, bearing a monetary impact of over Rs 3,025 crore on the Srei group.