Banks to sell Winsome’s mortgaged assets

Reports suggest that Banks which lent money to Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery have initiated selling the company’s mortgaged assets to recover its dues. The dues are estimated at Rs 4,300 crore, as reports say. Amongst the lenders Punjab National Bank (PNB) is the largest and it plans to hold an electronic auction of the said properties in August. The Bank had already declared the company as a wilful defaulter. The reserve price for the 28 units put on auction is Rs 38 crore.

The company had received a notice in 2014 from Standard Chartered Bank demanding recovery of dues worth a total of Rs 4,321 crore, on behalf of the consortium of banks. Standard Chartered too symbolic possession of the mortgaged properties in February 2015.

The company had mentioned that its customers in Dubai had defaulted on payments for goods exported to them. Winsome mentioned having filed suits against its customers for dues worth around $1.2 billion. Winsome also challenged the ‘wilful defaulter’ status given to it by the banks, noting that the bank’s wrong decision to give it this status was the outcome of a report from Kroll, appointed by the consortium led by Standard Chartered. Winsome calls this report as ‘unsubstantiated’.