Srei Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited.
The board of directors of
(Srei) and its subsidiary SEFL held meetings on Friday, April 23, 2021, Srei said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.
“SEFL announced that it has further received an expression of interest for capital infusion from Cerberus Global Investments B.V.,” the filing said.
New York-headquartered Cerberus comprises one of the world’s leading private investment firms with approximately $53 billion under management across multiple strategies.
Earlier this month, SEFL received EoIs for capital infusion of about $250 million (about Rs 1,864.35 crore) from US-based multi-strategy investment firm Arena Investors LP and Singapore-based global financial services company Makara Capital Partners.
“SEFL has proceeded with discussions with both Arena Investors and Makara Capital and the company’s Strategic Coordination Committee (SCC), chaired by independent director Malay Mukherjee, is currently engaged in discussions with the private equity funds to bring capital into the business,” Srei said.
The non-banking finance company said the SCC has been running an independent process for investments in SEFL and many large players have evinced interest.
The proposed capital infusion, which is being carried out in parallel to the company’s debt realignment plan, is expected to provide cushion against the pandemic induced stress in the Indian financial services space, it said.
EY has been advising the SCC on company’s fund raising exercise.
Besides, SEFL also announced appointment of Justice Deepak Verma as an independent director on its board w.e.f 23rd April, 2021.
Among others, SEFL has appointed KPMG Assurance and Consulting Services LLP and DMKH & Co., chartered accountants to conduct forensic audit for its proposed debt realignment process and good governance process, respectively.
Srei group has been facing asset-liability mismatch on the back of the pandemic driven lockdown induced stress on the economy.
The company had anticipated the impact of pandemic on its customers and the cascading effect the pandemic would have on its loan recovery.
Thus, SEFL had proactively approached National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) with a scheme, proposing repayment of the loans it borrowed in an orderly manner over a period of time.
“SEFL plans to repay its loans through the recoveries and hence the scheme was submitted to all the creditors to realign the repayment schedule with expected collections from customers. The lenders also have the flexibility to make necessary amendments in the proposed schemes,”it said further.
Srei on Saturday also announced the appointment of KPMG and DmKH & Co as the forensic auditors of the company as part of its debt realignment process.
