Mumbai: Lenders to Future Enterprises (FEL) have approved the appointment of consultancy firm PwC as an advisor to resolution professional Avil Menezes as they seek bids for the debt-laden company for the second time, after having scrapped last month the first such attempt due to lower valuations.
This time around, lenders are seeking separate bids for the company’s insurance stakes, its interests in a couple of textile mills and other residual investments including some manufacturing units. Lenders are hoping that the separate bids for different assets will help to maximise value.
“PwC’s job will be to help the RP market the assets and maximise valuations. PwC was selected among four such consultancy firms that had applied. Lenders have set January 16 as the last date to receive expressions of interest (EOIs) from prospective bidders in this second attempt,” said a person familiar with the process.
Lenders have divided FEL into three clusters. The first is the company’s stakes in its life and general insurance ventures with Italian partner Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. Banks are hoping for some recovery from FEL’s remaining 26% stake in Future Generali India Insurance Co and also its residual stake in Future Generali India Life after Generali hiked its stake to above 70% in 2021.
The second cluster is FEL’s 39% stake in two textile companies – Design and Apparels and Goldmohur Design and Apparels – which hold investments in Mumbai-based Apollo Mills and Goldmohur Mills in a joint venture with the National Textile Corporation.
The third cluster is all the residual investments of the company including two manufacturing units at Tarapur in the Palghar district in Maharashtra and Mahadevapura in Bengaluru.
Lenders are hoping to complete the bidding process for all three clusters by the end of February after taking into account all clarifications and comments by prospective bidders by the end of January. Menezes did not reply to an email seeking comment. A PWC spokesperson said the consultancy does not comment on company specific matters.
FEL owes 26 creditors led by the Central Bank of India and its arm Centbank Financial Services a total of ₹13,540 crore. Last month lenders had voted to restart the bidding process, after rejecting the ₹301-crore offer from Kolkata-based steel tubes and pipes maker Jindal (India), which amounted to just above 2% recovery on the total admitted claims.
