Essel group founder Subhash Chandra on Friday said that the group has repaid approximately Rs 43,000 crore of its Rs 45,000 crore total debt. He urged the banking system and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to appoint an independent auditor to review the group’s borrowings, defaults, and repayments.
Chandra addressed what he described as allegations and speculation surrounding him, his family, and the group’s financial position. He said the group’s problems began surfacing on January 24, 2019, because of an asset-liability mismatch. He said he then wrote an open letter to the banking system, acknowledging his mistakes and committing to repay the debt of the group and its borrowing entities.
“I am the first person to accept that I made a mistake in the corporate world,” Chandra said, adding the group sold family and personal assets to meet obligations. The group had almost sold Zee and his house was also mortgaged to raise funds, Chandra argued. “We didn’t keep anything,” he said.
Chandra said the group’s total loan amount was Rs 45,000 crore, of which Rs 43,000 crore had been repaid, while around Rs 2,000 crore remained stalled because of asset-liability issues.
In the proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chandra said the matter relates to personal guarantees he had provided to certain lenders. He said some lenders had already been repaid but nevertheless filed claims before the tribunal.
Chandra rejected claims that the NCLT matter involved Rs 22,000 crore, clarifying that the actual amount was around Rs 3,900 crore. He noted about Rs 620 crore in claims linked to borrowing entities had already been repaid, while a settlement offer of roughly Rs 1,100 crore remained pending before certain lenders. “As a group, we are committed to paying back the lenders,” he said.
He said the group remained stuck in some areas, particularly infrastructure, where payments were due from state governments. The group would also need to sell one or two properties, he added. Some people, he said, had taken the group’s market capitalisation and presented it as his personal net-worth. He pointed to an alleged figure of Rs 35,000 crore reported in 2017 as an example of this misunderstanding.
The Essel group founder said that when he became a Rajya Sabha member in 2016, his declared net-worth was around Rs 339 crore. Chandra called for an independent audit to establish how much the group had borrowed when it first defaulted and how much it had subsequently repaid.
He said he now had around Rs 6.5 crore left, which he would also use towards repayment. He also said that he had rented out a part of his house to meet his expenses.
Looking ahead, Chandra said he planned to work with investment professionals in Switzerland and invest family money in startups as he sought to rebuild his career.
He also urged people to verify claims about him circulating on WhatsApp and social media, saying ultimately “truth will prevail”.
Reliance terms Chandra’s ‘media entities’ remark baseless
The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group on Friday refuted allegations by media baron Subhash Chandra against media entities, terming them “baseless”. “We strongly deny the allegations and insinuations against the media entities that are a part of the Reliance Group,” a spokesperson said, adding: “Our media brands have never been used to attack anyone, nor will they ever be.”
In a statement on Thursday, Chandra had said that “certain vested media houses are spreading wrong information about my personal insolvency matter in NCLT”.