Vaish, L&L Partners act on Patanjali-Ruchi Soya deal

The Resolution Plan submitted by Patanjali Group was approved by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) for the acquisition of Ruchi Soya Industries Limited (Ruchi Soya). Accordingly, Patanjali Group has been declared as a Successful Resolution Applicant with its Rs 4,325 crore bid..Ruchi Soya has a total debt of about Rs 12,000 crore. It has many manufacturing plants and its leading brands include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold. It is part of the second list of 28 defaulters the Reserve Bank of India flagged for resolution. The approval of the CoC has been received after protracted litigations and more than 16 months since the initiation of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)..Initially, Resolution Plans were submitted, inter-alia, by Adani Wilmar Limited (Adani Wilmar) and Patanjali Group to acquire Ruchi Soya. The Resolution Plan submitted by Adani Wilmar was approved by the CoC in August 2018. However, Patanjali Group challenged, inter-alia, eligibility of Adani Wilmar to submit the Resolution Plan under Section 29A of IBC and process for negotiation..While the application filed by Patanjali Group was being argued before the NCLT Mumbai, Adani Wilmar withdrew its Resolution Plan citing delays in the CIRP. Subsequently, Patanjali Group negotiated its Resolution Plan with the Resolution Professional and Committee of Creditors. The CoC has approved the Resolution Plan submitted by Patanjali Group with approx. 96% vote in favour..Vaish Associates advised Patanjali on all aspects relating to the transaction. The transaction team included Partner Satwinder Singh and Principal Associate Kalpit Khandelwal. The litigation team was led by Associate Partner NPS Chawla, Associate Partner Melvyn Fernandes, Senior Associate Kaustubh Prakash, and Associate Pratiksha Agarwal. The competition team was led by Head of Competition team M M Sharma and Senior Associate Anand Sree..L&L Partners (formerly Luthra & Luthra Law Offices) advised the CoC. The transaction was led by Partner Bikash Jhawar and the team included Managing Associate Avinash Subramanian and Associate Swetha Shankaran..Senior Partner Vijay Sondhi, Partner Designate Nakul Sachdeva, Managing Associate Prateek Mishra, Senior Associate Aakarshan Sahay, Associates Akriti Shikha and Harshita Chaudhry formed part of the litigation team that handled the court process..Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.