HC asks Hirco Arm to reveal assets in Tata cap loan case

BANGALORE: The Bombay High Court has asked a subsidiary of real estate firm Hirco to disclose all its assets in an interim order that observed that prima facie Hiranandani Palace Gardens has defaulted on loan repayment to Tata Capital Financial Services. Tata Capital Financial Services had filed a winding-up petition against Hiranandani Palace Gardens, which has undertaken township projects in Chennai and at Panvel near Mumbai, over alleged default of term loan worth Rs 76 crore. The lender has demanded liquidation of the firm.

Hiranandani Palace Gardens has accepted to file an undertaking in the court that the developer will not create any third-party rights in respect of mortgaged properties and it will also not further encumber other properties without the court’s permission. The case will now be heard on December 4. Vikram Trivedi, managing partner at law firm Manilal Kher Ambalal & Co that represents Tata Capital Financial Services, confirmed the development. He, however, declined to comment , saying the matter is sub-judice.

According to the lender’s petition , it had sanctioned Hiranandani Palace Gardens’ applications for a Rs 100-crore term loan in July 2011. And it had disbursed Rs 76 crore. The developer defaulted on loan obligations from December 2012 and is now liable to pay Rs 82.6 crore, including an annual interest of 18.5 per cent. Tata Capital in its petition said Hiranandani Palace Gardens is under financial stress and is unable to meet creditor's liabilities. It also alleged that the company has misrepresented facts while availing the term loan.

In September 2011, the developer had authorised Jerxis Vandrevala and/or Firdose Vandrevala along with two more individuals to sign and execute necessary loan and security documents. However, in response to the lender’s notice sent in January, two out of four directors, Niranjan Hiranandani and Jerxis Vandrevala, informed that they ceased to be directors of the company from April 2011, said the petition. According to Tata Capital Financial Services, the documents furnished by the borrower before the loan disbursements were signed by Jerxis Vandrevala, who claimed to have stopped being the director from April 2011 itself.

When contacted, Bipin Gajra, spokesperson of Hiranandani Constructions, said that Niranjan Hiranandani, former chairman of Hirco, has not been connected with Hiranandani Palace Gardens since his resignation from Hirco in December 2010. Hirco’s balance sheet as on March 2012, however, shows both Hiranandani and Vandrevala as company directors.