ICICI Bank has moved under the new Securitisation Bill and taken over five residential flats of Patheja Brothers Forgings and Stampings Ltd. This is the second instance of institutions taking over the property of defaulters.
ICICI Bank had on November 27 taken over the Vatwa unit of Mardia Chemicals Ltd (MCL). The Patheja group consists of Patheja Forgings and Autoparts Manufacturers Ltd (PFL) and Patheja Brothers Forgings and Stampings Ltd.
ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Exim Bank, Credit Agricole Indosuez, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Industrial Development Bank of India, IFCI and the Unit Trust of India among others have an exposure of more than Rs 375 crore in PFL and around Rs 230 crore in Patheja Brothers.
ICICI Bank took over five of the residential flats of the Patheja group today through the registrar of the Chief Metropolitian Magistrates Court (CMM), accompanied by the police. It had earlier taken over the Boat Club residence of Pathejas in Pune.
PFL, which was registered as a sick company with the BIFR in 1998, has plants in Pune and Aurangabad. Both the companies have not been paying their dues to the institutions for the past some years.
ICICI Bank is in the process of taking action against all the assets of Patheja Group at Chakhan, Bhosari at Pune at Waluj in Aurangabad and at Satara. It is also taking steps to take the possession of flats at various places in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Bangalore.
The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) had also in May recommended the winding up of PFL. The company had resorted to large scale diversion of funds into un-related activities, according to institution sources.
The promoters of the Patheja group of companies, Man Singh Patheja and his son Gurvinder Patheja, were arrested on May 8 - and later released on bail - on the criminal complaint filed by ICICI Bank under the Negotiable Instruments Act for being signatories to cheques that had bounced. The value of the cheques were at around Rs 13 crore.
ICICI was earlier appointed as the operating agency by BIFR on March 1999 and was directed to conduct a special investigative audit and a techno-economic viability study (TEVS). Khandelwal & Jain were appointed for conducting the SIA, while Dalal Consultants & Engineers conducted the TEVS.
