ICICI Bank, others take over assets of Patheja group

Mumbai: Banks led by ICICI Bank have taken over the assets, including personal property, of the Patheja group of companies under the asset securitisation law. The personal property of the promoters includes residential flats in various places such as Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Bangalore.

Patheja Forgings and group companies Autoparts Manufacturers Ltd (PFL) and Patheja Brothers Forgings and Stampings Ltd (PBL), together owe financial institutions and banks more than Rs 1,200 crore in principal and interest.

Officials with lending institutions said PFL owes Rs 230 crore and PBL owes Rs 375 crore in principal alone. For the past five years, the lenders' attempts to recover their money have been frustrated by the Pathejas, who successfully took cover under the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1998, they said.

In April this year, Mansingh Patheja and his son, Gurvinder Singh Patheja, were arrested on criminal charges levelled by ICICI Bank. The chief metropolitan magistrate has now again issued arrest warrants against the two for non-compliance of its previous orders.

Promoted in 1968, Patheja Forgings was an award-winning exporter in 1992, when it went public. At one time, the company was the largest supplier of connecting rods to the two-wheeler industry and counted Bajaj and Premier among its top clients. However, the lender sources said, the company fell into bad times due to gross mismanagement and diversion of funds by the promoters.