NARCL bids Rs 2.7 bn for Pink City Eway, 15% recovery expected

The National Asset Reconstruction Co (NARCL), a bad loan aggregator supported by the government, has presented a Rs 2.70 billion proposal for Pink City Expressway (PCEPL). PCEPL was established to construct, operate, and maintain the six-lane Gurugram-Kotputli-Jaipur section of the Delhi-Jaipur highway. According to the rating agency Care, PCEPL holds Rs 17.61 billion in outstanding loans and Rs 30 million in bank guarantees. This implies that lenders can recover approximately 15% of their claims from NARCL. The process involves the bad bank acquiring loans by paying 15% of the amount in cash and the remainder in security receipts (SRs). These SRs are to be matched with recovery over time and are guaranteed by the government for five years. They can be invoked by banks in case of resolution or liquidation of the bad loan. A person familiar with the process, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated, The PCEPL offer was finalised last week after NARCL completed all its financial and legal due diligence. Individual banks have to approve the transaction for it to be completed. About a dozen banks, with IDBI Bank at the forefront and including Canara Bank, IFCL, and State Bank of India (SBI), are lenders to the project. This offer marks the first from NARCL to banks in over four months and the first since changes in the top management of the bad bank. Diwakar Gupta, former SBI managing director, assumed the position of NARCL chairman in early December, succeeding Karnam Sekar, who resigned in August due to differences over the institution's functioning.