Yash Birla firm fails to repay loan, bank attaches home

Yash Birla’s 5,000-sq-ft Kemps Corner rowhouse in South Mumbai has been attached by the bank after his group failed to repay a loan of Rs 19 crore, reports Mumbai Mirror. The house is reportedly worth Rs 40 crore. The report says that the bank took over the property on 2 July and has now announced its auction. The Mumbai Mirror report adds: “The property, which used to be Birla’s residence until recently, has been put on the block, and that the minimum reserve price of the property has been set at Rs 31.45 crore.” The loan worth Rs 19 crore was taken from ING Vysya Bank in 2012 and when it was not repaid, the report states that “the bank issued a demand notice on May 2 this year”.  Yash Birla Group told the paper that they would pay back the loan soon. [caption id=“attachment_34535” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Yash Birla in this file photo. AFP[/caption] An advisor to the group told Mirror, “We were given a deadline of June 30, which was later extended to July 7. But we could not meet it… now we are working out modalities and over the next few days, we would have begun repaying ING Vysya Bank as well.” The troubles of the Yash Birla Group aren’t just restricted to the Kemps corner house. In January this year, Birla’s residence on Mumbai’s Mount Pleasant Road and five other offices were raided by the economic offences wing (EOW) of Mumbai police for defaulting on fixed deposits (FDs) by group firm Birla Solutions. Before that in January, his group premises were raided by the income tax department for alleged tax evasion. A Mint report in March of this year had noted that for Yash Birla’s Group, there was “72% drop in revenue from a year ago” and “losses widened to Rs.177.5 crore from Rs.35.3 crore a year earlier”. With his house now all set to go under the hammer, it seems that for Yash Birla 2014 could be an exceptionally difficult year where saving his empire is concerned.