NCLAT stays order against Vedanta's power business demerger
Vedanta Ltd received an interim stay from NCLAT on NCLT's order rejecting the demerger of its power business and merger with TSPL. The stay is conditional and allows Vedanta to proceed with its strategic reorganization. NCLAT cited the need to consider the issues at length and the potential impact on other pending demerger applications.
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
New Delhi, Appellate tribunal NCLAT has granted an interim stay on an order of the National Company Law Tribunal ( NCLT ) rejecting demerger of Vedanta 's power business and its merger with resultant entity Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL).The order came as a relief to Vedanta Ltd which is in the process of demerging its businesses into separate entities.In a filing to BSE, Vedanta said the NCLAT order dated May 27, 2025 granted an interim stay on the order passed by the NCLT's Mumbai bench dated March 4, 2025 "to the extent it relates to the rejection of the scheme", subject to fulfilling the conditions mentioned in the order.Vedanta said that it remains committed to its strategic reorganisation plan and continues to work towards unlocking long-term value for all stakeholders.A two-member NCLAT bench said "the issues raised before us need to be considered at length and presently in view of the submissions made the scheme is severable and thus in case the stay is not granted to the impugned order, it may affect the second motion application filed in respect of other three transferor companies pending in different tribunals".The matter has been listed for the next hearing on August 4.Earlier, the Mumbai bench of NCLT had dismissed the petition of TSPL on the demerger scheme after objections were raised by SEPCO, a creditor of TSPL.The NCLT had observed "material facts have not been disclosed by the applicant company, violating Section 230 (2)(a) of the Companies Act, 2013, which in our considered opinion is bound to prejudice the public interest at large".The NCLT's ruling came after China-based SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corporation objected to the demerger, saying the power unit had deliberately excluded their outstanding debt of Rs 1,251 crore from the list of creditors.SEPCO alleged that TSPL had concealed the information about its liabilities."This has been done deliberately to defeat SEPCO's rights," the NCLT had said.According to a Vedanta spokesperson, the NCLT ruling pertained only to the TSPL application and the power business undertaking and does not impact or alter the progress of the other business undertakings proposed to be demerged.SEPCO was listed as an unsecured creditor to the extent of Rs 1,251 crore, which would constitute more than 75 per cent of the unsecured debt by value, and as a result of the same, the vote by SEPCO itself would have been against the scheme, potentially impacting the interest of TSPL.The tribunal had said that the non-disclosure of such a significant liability could prejudice the interests of creditors and shareholders, and the valuation of TSPL conducted without factoring in SEPCO's claim was flawed and could impact public interest.The scheme, filed under Sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013, involved the demerger of Vedanta's business verticals into five separate entities-- Vedanta Aluminium Metal, Talwandi Sabo Power, Malco Energy, Vedanta Base Metals and Vedanta Iron and Steel.It was aimed to create independent, globally competitive companies, each focusing on its core business and attracting specialised investors and stakeholders.The boards of the respective companies had approved the scheme between September and October 2023.Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd is expecting to complete the demerger of its businesses by September-end this year. PTI
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
MC prepares Rs 10cr plan for public services at Manimajra housing project site
1 2 Chandigarh: With the Chandigarh municipal corporation eagerly pursuing the matter related to disposal of the Manimajra land parcel for a residential housing society project, its engineering department has finalised a comprehensive plan worth approximately Rs 10 crore for establishing essential underground and overhead services in pocket number 6 of Manimajra. A detailed agenda is scheduled for discussion during Tuesday's monthly general house meeting, seeking members' approval to initiate tender processes for basic service provisions. Various divisions of MC's engineering department, including Building and Roads, Public Health, Electrical, and Horticulture, have collaborated on this project. Officials from each division conducted thorough assessments of their respective domains, culminating in a consolidated financial estimate for the site development. "Providing roads infrastructure, water supply network, sewage lines, electrification, and horticulture work are some of the key basic public services required at the spot before doing any other works there. Thus, the matter was discussed at the level of the senior officers, following which the financial estimates were prepared. Since the area of pocket number 6 of Manimajra, where this housing project is planned, is completely vacant land, none of the services are there, and thus all the works have to be done by keeping the residential accommodations in mind," sources in the MC revealed. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy Brass Idols - Handmade Brass Statues for Home & Gifting Luxeartisanship Buy Now Undo A senior official indicated that whilst awaiting clarification from the Deputy Commissioner's office regarding the area's collector rate, the MC continues to advance preparations within its jurisdiction. "The senior officers of the MC and DC office are also in touch on this issue, and the clarification regarding the Collector Rate of this specific chunk of land, where the housing project has to come, will come soon," sources revealed. Box: The approved zoning and layout plan encompasses five residential pockets across 7.7 acres in Manimajra. With the UT's approval of 2 Floor Area Ratio (FAR), developments may reach five storeys. The plan incorporates dedicated spaces for shopping facilities, green areas, and reserved land. The UT's Urban Planning Department's recent layout plan approval for pocket number 6 includes modifications based on the survey plan, featuring five group housing pockets, convenient shopping, green areas, playground, and reserved spaces.
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
Builder.ai Faked Business With Indian Firm VerSe to Inflate Sales, Sources Say
(Bloomberg) -- Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. Sign up the artificial intelligence startup that recently announced plans to declare bankruptcy, faked business with the Indian social-media startup VerSe Innovation for years to falsely inflate its sales, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg and people with direct knowledge of the two companies routinely billed one another for roughly the same amounts between 2021 and 2024, documents reviewed by Bloomberg show, as part of an alleged practice known as 'round-tripping' that the people said used to inflate revenue figures it presented to investors. In many cases, products and services weren't actually provided to either company for these payments, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Umang Bedi, a VerSe co-founder, said it was 'absolutely baseless and false' that his company would have recorded expenses or billed services that it didn't receive or provide. 'We're not the kind of company that is in the business of inflating revenues,' he said in an interview. The company said that the services bought and sold to have been verified by reputable external organizations. Accusations of round tripping are 'defamatory and irresponsible,' and it's incorrect to say that the companies routinely billed each other for roughly the same amount, VerSe said. A representative for declined to comment. once valued at about $1.5 billion, is the most high-profile AI startup to collapse since ChatGPT's launch started a global investment frenzy. Its downfall shows the risks inherent in the rush to back AI startups as investors seek to replicate the success of industry heavyweights such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The London-based startup, which pitched its tech as a way to make apps with little or no coding, said earlier in May it planned to file for bankruptcy after a major creditor seized most of its reported earlier that overstated its projected 2024 sales to creditors by 300%, which contributed to the lenders' decision to seize the company's funds. Bloomberg also reported that US prosecutors have demanded that the company hand over financial statements, accounting policies and a list of its customers as part of a subpoena. has declined to comment on the subpoena. The company has acknowledged it's found discrepancies in its historical sales but has declined to comment on the scope of the alleged overstatement. collected close to $60 million in revenue from VerSe in the four-year period for services such as application development, according to people with knowledge of the situation. In turn, the AI startup sent funds to VerSe and its subsidiary, Quark Media Tech, for services such as marketing, the documents show. The two companies appear to have interspersed the timing and amount of the invoices to avoid suspicion, though each firm ultimately spent approximately the same amount, according to the people and documents. Bedi, a former managing director for Facebook in India and South Asia, said VerSe started working with around 2021, but denied that the companies were acting in cooperation or failed to deliver any services. 'There is no correlation on any timing of any payment to any partner,' Bedi said. had raised more than $450 million from investors, including Insight Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority, or QIA, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds. Microsoft Corp. invested in 2023 and announced plans to integrate the startup's offerings with Microsoft's cloud and Teams product. 'We see creating an entirely new category that empowers everyone to be a developer,' Jon Tinter, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said at the time. A representative for Insight Partners didn't respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for Microsoft and QIA, which also invested in VerSe, declined to comment. In February, founder Sachin Dev Duggal stepped down as chief executive officer, although he remained on the board and retained his title as 'Chief Wizard' at the nine-year-old company. He was replaced as CEO by Manpreet Ratia, an investor with Jungle Ventures, a backer based in Singapore. Shortly after joining, Ratia said he planned to strengthen the company's governance and policies. Three months after taking the role, he told employees the company planned to shut down. 'With no viable alternatives, the Board has made the extremely difficult decision to enter into insolvency,' he wrote in an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg. A representative for Duggal declined to comment. VerSe, which is based in Bengaluru, is one of the largest consumer tech newcomers in India. VerSe has said that its news aggregation app, Dailyhunt, has more than 350 million monthly users, and it released a video app, called Josh, right after the Indian government banned TikTok. In 2022, VerSe raised $805 million from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and other investors in a round that gave the startup a $5 billion valuation. Goldman Sachs and Google had invested in VerSe earlier. Representatives for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Goldman declined to comment. Google didn't respond to requests for comment. In VerSe's financial report for the year ending in March 2024, its auditor Deloitte wrote in its opinion that the startup lacked 'appropriate internal controls' over several aspects of its business, including its information technology, advertising revenue and relationship with suppliers. Those flaws 'could potentially result in material misstatement' of the company's accounts, the auditor wrote in the report, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. Deloitte did sign off on the startup's accounts for the year as 'true and fair.' Bedi described the issues the auditor flagged as common 'process control' difficulties that the company was working through and said that Deloitte found no material misstatements. The Deloitte opinion was previously reported by the Indian publication Mint. The newspaper also reported in April that VerSe's chief financial officer had resigned ahead of the startup's expected initial public offering. Bedi said the CFO, Sandip Basu, left for health reasons. He said the company currently has 'very little debt' and plans to break even by the second half of 2025. He said the company is speaking to potential advisers about an IPO, but doesn't have firm plans. Basu couldn't immediately be reached for comment. founder Duggal and Bedi have cooperated publicly and Duggal has posted on social media with Bedi. In 2023, Duggal added a photo on his verified Instagram account showing him and Bedi standing together, sporting light colored blazers, in front of 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the British Prime Minister. 'With my main man @ at @10downingstreet for #londontechweek,' Duggal wrote, tagging Bedi's verified account. In a later LinkedIn post, Duggal thanked Bedi for contributing to a gathering in Singapore as one of the 'incredible speakers from the extended family.' Bedi said he participated in the event via Zoom and did not travel to Singapore. He said he invested about $10,000 in Duggal's company, which was previously known as around 2017. But Bedi said he has only met Duggal 'two or three' times, noting that the London meeting was part of a broader group of tech executives and entrepreneurs. 'I don't have a very close interpersonal relationship,' Bedi said. 'I have a professional business working relationship.' --With assistance from Sankalp Phartiyal. (Updates with additional comments from VerSe in third and 16th paragraphs) More stories like this are available on
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Why Trump is weaponising remittances
According to a report by Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington DC-based think tank, the Indian diaspora comprises 5.2 million US residents who were either born in India or reported Indian ancestry or origin. Of these individuals, around 55% were born in India, and the remaining 45% were born in the United States or elsewhere. India was the third largest country of origin for immigrants who obtained a green card in 2023, after Mexico and Cuba, says a tabulation by Migration Policy Institute (MPI). Of the nearly 1.2 million people receiving a green card that year, about 78,100 (7%) were from India. The MPI further estimates that around 3,75,000 (or 3%) of the 11.3 million unauthorised immigrants in the US of mid-2022 were from India, making Indians the fifth largest among all unauthorised immigrants in the US. The Indian Diaspora in the US, which is the 10th largest in the country, stands to get most adversely affected by the new remittance tax as India is one of the biggest recipients of inward remittances from the US. About 78% Indian migrants in the US are employed in high earning sectors such as management, business, science, and arts occupations. Over 54 lakh Indians are living in the US and out of this, more than 33 lakh belong to Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) category, according to Statista. India remained the top remittance recipient in 2024. India's total remittance receipts stood at $137.7 billion during 2024 (on a calendar year basis), accounting for 3.5% of India's GDP. The annual inward remittance of $138 billion is 70% higher than India's gross FDI inflow in FY25. Therefore, strong inward remittance is a handy tool for the government of India to manage the Current Account Deficit (CAD), especially amid falling net FDI inflows (Net FDI inflows fell to $0.4 billion in FY25 from $10 billion in the previous year). According to an RBI report, 28% of India's total inward remittances came from the US – making it $38 billion of money sent to India. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests the 3.5% levy on remittance could add $1.33 billion of tax burden on NRIs sending money back to India. However, the real impact is yet to be known. A finance ministry official this newspaper spoke to said the government is yet to make an impact analysis of the remittance tax. According to RBI's annual report, the average cost of sending remittances of $200 to India is estimated at 5.3% in the third quarter of 2024, below the global average of 6.6%. But this is going to change after 2025, thanks to the remittance tax. The measure could place added financial pressure on Indian nationals working in the United States, says Amarpal Chadha, Tax Partner and Mobility Leader, EY India. 'Many may be forced to re-evaluate their remittance patterns, including the amount and frequency of remittances for the purpose of maintenance of family or investment in India,' he says.
