DHFL set to restart lending operations soon, company gets creditors' panel nod to lend Rs 500 cr per month

The crisis-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) will be able to start its lending operations soon. The committee of creditors (CoC) to Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) reportedly gave its nod to a plan enabling the housing finance company to resume its lending operations starting with Rs 500 crore per month in order to stop decline in the company loan book, said a report in Mint. DHFL has been recovering up to Rs 1,800 crore every month from past loans and, after setting aside money for securitisation payments and operational expenses, it can restart disbursements of Rs 500 crore per month, the report said citing a document from the administrator appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). [caption id=“attachment_6023581” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The RBI-appointed administrator of the beleaguered DHFL admitted close to Rs 4,800 crore of claims submitted by fixed deposit holders of the company, reported PTI. Nearly 55,000 public depositor holders, including retail and UP Power Corporation Employees, have demanded payments aggregating to Rs 5,200 crore from the troubled mortgage players as of 17 December. “The claims from fixed depositors that have been admitted, so far, are Rs 4,800 crore,” a source said. With this, the total amount of claim received by the company’s administrator, R Subramaniakumar, who is also the resolution professional, from financial creditors, operational creditors, employees, fixed deposit holders, and other creditors has touched approximately Rs 93,105 crore. Against that, around Rs 85,800 crore of claims have been admitted, so far, said a banker. In November last year, the RBI had sent DHFL to the bankruptcy tribunal , making it the first non-banking finance company (NBFC)/housing finance company (HFC) to be resolved under the insolvency and bankruptcy code. The central bank also said there will an interim moratorium on the lender between the date of filing of the bankruptcy application and its admission or rejection. In November last year, there were news reports that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) would investigate into the allegations of financial fraud against DHFL and five real estate companies. Minister of state for corporate affairs Anurag Thakur informed the Lok Sabha that the government ordered an SFIO probe into the affairs of DHFL and five real estate companies namely Immediate Real Estate, Tenancity Real Estate, RKW Developers, Darshan Developers, and Rajen Skycraper. On 20 November 2019, the Reserve Bank had superseded the board of the troubled HFC due to governance concerns and defaults on various debt instruments. The central bank had then appointed Subramaniakumar, the ex-managing director of Indian Overseas Bank as the administrator of the third-largest pureplay mortgage lender. In January last year, the corporate affairs ministry had started inquiring into allegations of DHFL diverting Rs 31,000-crore loans and would seek more information from the housing finance firm. DHFL was in the eye of a storm after a report that the company through layers of shell companies allegedly siphoned off Rs 31,000 crore out of the total bank loans of Rs 97,000 crore. Following the report this week, the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Mumbai, had started looking into the matter. — With PTI inputs