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Lenders to troubled diamond jewellery exporter Winsome and Forever Precious Jewellery — both promoted by Jatin Mehta — have started classifying their Rs 8,000 crore exposure as a non-performing asset. These banks have made provisioning for the exposure in the first quarter of the financial year. Punjab National Bank, which has an exposure of Rs 1,650 crore to Winsome, has declared the loan as ‘sub-standard’ and has made a Rs 400 crore provision for it, bank’s CMD K R Kamath said while announcing the results.
The consortium of lenders had opened letters of credit (LC) for the purchase of gold. The problem started when the bullion banks - Standard Bank of South Africa, Standard Chartered London, and Scotiabank - invoked the LC that the banks have issued for Winsome, after the company failed to pay within 90 days, as agreed at the time of the contract.
Two other public sector lenders - Central Bank of India and Bank of India - have also classified the loan as bad. While Bank of India has an exposure of Rs 250 crore and has made a provision of Rs 50 crore in the quarter ended June, Central Bank of India has an exposure of Rs 1,000 crore.
Some other lenders which have exposure in the companies are IDBI Bank, Union Bank of India and Canara Bank.
The banks’ decision to treat the loan as NPA comes at a time when the loan has been referred for corporate debt restructuring.
The total debt (of two entities) to be taken up by Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) is pegged at Rs 5,800 crore. Winsome’s CDR exposure is pegged at Rs 3,900 crore, while Forever’s exposure is at Rs 1,900 crore.
The future course of finalising the CDR package for two companies is linked to the promoter’s commitment to bring in their contribution upfront, forensic report of accounts by auditors and techno-economic feasibility study.
The Reserve Bank of India has prescribed strict norms for cases whose debt would be restructured after June 1. Promoters have to cough up their share of contributions in the beginning.
In a separate development, the company has mooted a proposal for a tripartite agreement involving lenders, the company and its distributors and retailers who hawk the company’s products. This pact would give lenders the right to start legal action for recovery (from distributors and retail chains) in the event of default.
With almost all its business transacted overseas, Winsome’s exposure to currency volatility and gold prices had always been high. As the prices crashed, its liquidity came under severe pressure and, for the first time, the company failed to pay its installment to bullion banks—foreign banks which sold gold to Winsome.
These banks were selling gold to Winsome against guarantees by a clutch of Indian public sector banks. A consortium of lenders, including Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, had issued letters of credit to Winsome for buying gold.
However, after the firm failed to pay the bullion lenders, the latter invoked all the guarantees, ballooning the company’s loan liability 10 times to Rs 4,000 crore.
