The Hindu Business Line : ICICI Bank slaps notice on JK co

A GROUP of lenders led by ICICI Bank has issued a notice to take over the assets of JK Udaipur Udyog Ltd (JKUUL) of the Hari Shanker Singhania-promoted JK group to recover loans of about Rs 132 crore. The notice has been issued under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Ordinance.

JK Udaipur, which has a cement manufacturing capacity of about one million tonnes per annum owes Rs 70 crore to ICICI Bank and Rs 52 crore to other banks and financial institutions, including State Bank of India, UTI, IDBI and LIC. The lenders had restructured the debt of the company — classified non-performing by most banks and FIs in 1999 — in January 2001 after the group agreed to consolidate its cement business under JK Corp Ltd, another group company which operates a two-million tonne cement plant.

According to ICICI Bank officials, the company has been defaulting on loan repayments since December 2001 and its manufacturing facilities have been lying idle since March 2002. To save the profit-making JK Corp, the promoters have decided to renege on their commitment to merge JK Udaipur with it, they said.

ICICI Bank has already taken action against the Mardia group and the Patheja group for takeover of assets.

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ICICI Bank slaps notice on JK co