Concerned over their massive exposure to the debt-laden infrastructure conglomerate Jaypee Group, its lenders met here today to take stock of the situation.
The Manoj Gaur-led group is in the process of reducing its debt of over Rs 72,000 crore by selling some of its assets, which could also help it deleverage the balance sheet.
The consortium of as many as 30 lenders led by State Bank and including IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce among others, has an overall exposure of Rs 72,000 crore out of which Rs 8,000 crore is due by March. The meeting took place at the SBI headquarters here.
A senior public sector banker said, "It was a regular review meeting and was to take stock as to how much of the assets has been sold by the group as well as how much more they are going to put on block."
As of now the group is not a bad asset, but at the same time not all is well at the group, said another banker, adding the consortium met to see what could be done.
The Jaypee Group subsidiary Jaiprakash Power Ventures is in the process of selling its three operational plants -the 300- mw Baspa-II hydel plant, the 1091-mw Karcham Wangtoo hydel plant (both in HP) and the 500-mw Bina thermal plant in MP to reduce its overall debt.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power had recently abandoned its plans to buy its three hydropower projects citing regulatory uncertainties.
However, within a week the company announced that it had signed an agreement with the Sajjan Jindal-run JSW Energy for selling these three plants.
The company had earlier this year signed a deal to divest these plants to the Abu Dhabi-based TAQA for Rs 9,689 crore but the deal did not go through.
