Troubled DHFL's jailed promoter Kapil Wadhawan offers to settle all claims, loans

MUMBAI: Kapil Wadhawan, the jailed promoter of troubled Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), has offered to settle all claims and loans of his now insolvent non-bank lender.
Wadhawan has written to the administrator appointed by the Reserve Bank of India offering his rights, title and interest in at least 10 projects that he claims are valued at ₹43,879 crore, towards the settlement.

Last year, RBI referred DHFL for bankruptcy proceedings. DHFL is facing claims of more than ₹94,900 crore from financial creditors.

“... At the time of submission of the resolution plan, cash flow estimation reports of some of these projects were from reputed and internationally acclaimed external valuers who have collectively valued the projects at ₹43,879 crore,” Wadhawan said in the nine-page letter sent from Taloja jail on the outskirts of Mumbai, where he and brother Dheeraj are currently lodged.

The projects include marquee ones such as the Juhu Galli project (potential revenue of about ₹32,000 crore) and Irla project (potential revenue of around ₹4,400 crore). They are key to resolving all existing issues and will enable a successful resolution, Wadhawan said in the letter addressed to R Subramaniakumar.

The Adani group and the Piramal group were interested in developing these projects and had — after completing due diligence — signed term sheets to enter into development management agreements, he said in the letter. “... these projects are now being offered to your disposal to be monetised with the maximum value in the most appropriate manner to ensure repayment to lenders of DHFL,” it said.

When contacted, Wadhawan’s counsel Vijay Aggarwal told ET, “My client wishes to cooperate in the resolution of the matter and wants to see that every single penny gets repaid, but the limitation is that they are in custody. Their offering, even their other properties, shows their bona fide (intention). In India, in case of default, the person gets arrested and unlocking maximum possible value of assets gets jeopardised.”

Some of the projects cited by Wadhawan are under investigation by the ED, which is in the process of provisionally attaching them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for being ‘proceeds of crime’.

“He (Wadhawan) might offer them but many of them are tainted properties under investigation and the agency will challenge them before the competent body,” a senior official told ET.