Essel Group founder Subhash Chandra said the group has repaid around ₹43,000 crore of its total borrowings of ₹45,000 crore and urged the banking system and the finance minister to appoint an independent auditor to examine its borrowings, defaults and repayments.
Chandra addressed what he described as allegations and speculation surrounding him, his family and the group’s financial position.
Chandra 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.
He said the group sold family and personal assets to meet its obligations. According to Chandra, the group had almost sold Zee, while his house was also mortgaged to raise funds. “We didn’t keep anything,” he said.
Chandra said the group’s total loan amount was ₹45,000 crore, of which ₹43,000 crore had been repaid, while around ₹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.
He rejected claims that the NCLT matter involved ₹22,000 crore, saying the claims were around ₹3,900 crore. Of this, he said approximately ₹620 crore in claims relating to borrowing entities had been repaid, while an offer of around ₹1,100 crore was pending before some lenders.
“As a group, we are committed to paying back the lenders,” Chandra 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 said.
Chandra added that the family was now in the process of buying back a 20 per cent stake in Zee Entertainment Enterprises.
He also rejected allegations about his personal wealth. Chandra said some people had taken the group’s market capitalisation and presented it as his personal net worth, including an alleged figure of ₹35,000 crore in 2017.
He said that when he became a Rajya Sabha member in 2016, his declared net worth was around ₹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 ₹6.5 crore left, which he would also use towards repayment, and had rented out 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 start-ups 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.”
On Thursday, Chandra said in a release that media reports on his personal insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had misrepresented the quantum of claims against him and stated that the relevant claims totalled ₹3,992 crore and not ₹22,000 crore.
