Lenders may revaluation mortgaged assets of to Zoom Developers

Atmadip Ray, ET Bureau Feb 5, 2014, 12.14PM IST

KOLKATA: Lenders to Mumbai-based Zoom Developers may go for a revaluation of the mortgaged assets that were put on the block since they failed to sell them to recover part of the Rs 3,000-crore outstanding loans.

A consortium of 25 lenders, led by Punjab National Bank(PNB), had put seven assets of the project development and information technology company on sale thrice without any success. United Bank of India had issued a sale notice on behalf of the lenders, but there were no buyers. The last notice was issued on November 18, 2013, and the last date of receiving the tender was December 19.

"It seems no one's willing to pay the reserve price," said a senior banker involved in the process. "We may need to engage a value afresh to do a valuation again and lower the reserve price of the assets on the block," he said requesting anonymity.

Total reserve price for the seven properties was fixed at Rs 72.88 crore, which is just about 2.4% of the outstanding dues. It perhaps suggests that banks had lent to Zoom without physical security to cover therisk.

A section of the lenders has suggested that a revision of the valuation of the properties will probably get buyers, but a final decision will be taken only at the next lenders' meet.

 Lenders are also free to sell the mortgaged properties in private deals but they need to obtain consent from the borrower if they fail to sell them at a price higher than the quoted reserve price as stipulated under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets & Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI ) Act-2002.

The government allows private treaties after one sale notice. Among the seven properties put up for sale, two are at Mumbai's Andheri area with a cumulative reserve price of Rs 33.2 crore and the other five are in Indore where the firm is registered. Bankers said they have managed to sell just one of its property for Rs 1.7 crore outside this list.

UBI had taken symbolic possession of the mortgaged properties since Zoom's promoters Vijay Choudhary and BL Kejriwal and its guarantors failed to repay the loan.

 Total dues of the secured lenders are Rs 3,002 crore, plus interest and other expenses to be accrued since September 2011, until banks recover all their dues.