Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved, whose takeover proposal for Ruchi Soya was approved by lenders and courts, has now sought seven days' time to implement the resolution plan, multiple people familiar with the development told CNBC-TV18. This comes after the creditors' committee led by State Bank of India had given Patanjali a deadline of December 16 to implement the plan, and were hopeful of closing the deal by the close of Monday, CNBC-TV18 had earlier reported.

A person aware of the development told CNBC-TV18 that Patanjali moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to seek seven more days to implement the plan, as the court set deadline was ending on Monday.

A senior banking executive who did not wish to be quoted said, “Patanjali has tied up the equity portion (to acquire Ruchi Soya), but release from some sources is taking a bit of time. The debt portion of the funds is fully tied up,” adding that the resolution is very much in place and that the extension was sought merely as a “cushion” to allow more time for unavoidable delays. He added that Patanjali Avyuved has already secured funding from five banks to acquire Ruchi Soya- including SBI, Union Bank of India, PNB and Syndicate Bank.

An SBI led consortium was hopeful of recovering approximately 48 percent of the money they lent to bankrupt oil-edible maker Ruchi Soya, after Patanjali’s plan to take-over the company was approved under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code for a total amount of Rs 4,235 crores. While Financial Creditors have made claims of Rs 9,384 cr against Ruchi Soya, Patanjali has proposed to repay a total of Rs 4053.19 crore to them under resolution plan. Workmen and Employees are to be paid Rs 14.92 cr under Patanjali’s approved plan, and unsecured financial creditors Rs 40 crores.

First Published:Dec 16, 2019 6:51 PM IST