May not take over AgriGold firms, Essel-Zee group tells High Court

Hyderabad: In a sudden twist to the ongoing saga of AgriGold, the Essel-Zee group indicated to the Hyderabad High Court on Monday that it may not be viable for the company to take over 175 group companies of Agrigold on an ‘as is where is basis,’ but directed that it may prefer to take over the properties of these companies. As is known, Deloitte accounting firm had filed an Intervention application on behalf of Subhash Chandra Foundation (part of Essel-Zee group) in the High Court seeking to undertake the due-diligence exercise on the assets and liabilities of Agrigold Group of Companies, so it could take over the companies.

Senior advocate Raghuram, who appeared for the Deloitte firm, told the division bench comprising Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice S V Bhatt that in the exercise conducted so far as part of due-diligence, it was noticed that there are problems in assessing the value of these companies and therefore they may not be viable in terms of take over. The counsel sought three months additional time to complete due-diligence exercise and also sought permission of the Court to issue advertisements about the Agrigold properties, that they intend to buy, to avoid any encumbrances in the future.

The senior counsel for Agrigold company L Ravichander intervened and said that as far as his information is concerned the top-level functionaries of both the Agrigold company and the Essel-Zee group have almost reached a consensus on the take over and things would become clear shortly.

The bench expressed scepticism over the Intervenor’s statement, that they would complete the due-diligence exercise within three months, and directed the petitioner and the two State governments to give a written response to the requests of the Intervenor by the time of next hearing on December 12. The bench also raised objections over how it can privilege the Intervenor over others if it is only interested in buying the properties rather than taking over the companies.

Special Government Pleader for Andhra Pradesh Krishna Prakash sought one more week for putting up next phase of properties on e-auction portal. The bench agreed to the request. The counsel for the petitioner brought to the notice of the bench about the reports in media regarding Paradise papers that revealed Agrigold Directors had floated offshore companies in Cayman Islands and siphoned off the monies. The bench said that it is aware of the reports and would examine the issue later.