Gets approval from shareholders of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd, but has no plans to run media business
Srei Infrastructure Finance has got approval from the shareholders of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) for the appointment of five nominee directors on the Board of the troubled media group, some of whom have been drawn from the media industry.
Promoters of Srei, however, have no intention to run the businesses of Deccan Chronicle Holdings which include daily newspapers like Deccan Chronicle, Financial Chronicle, AndhraBhoomi among others.
Manoj Mohanka, former chairman of Network18 Media Investments and TV18 Broadcast and veteran journalist and Press Council member Sabina Indrajit are among the directors that have roped in with the sole purpose of getting a hang of the affairs at the beleaguered company so as to help Srei recover its investments.
"This (appointment of directors) is only towards the realisation of our money. The purpose of getting the directors appointed in Deccan Chronicle is for better control of what is happening there so that we can have our loans back.
We have no interest in running the company. Our interest is only to realise our money and we are doing everything towards that end," Srei Infrastructure Finance chairman Hemant Kanoria told DNA Money after the meeting.
After Srei came up with the proposal to induct five additional directors in the Board of Deccan Chronicle in February to wrest control of the media house now controlled by the Reddy family, there were speculations that Srei would now be reviving the media operations.
But even after getting the proposals cleared, Kanoria said Srei has no such plans. "We have no such intention at all. We have our hands full, and as it is, Deccan Chronicle is not the best way to enter the media business," Hemant said.
Recovering even the Rs 220 crore, part of which was converted into equity in 2015, would be time-consuming as several hurdles would have to be crossed.
"We have to go a long way. Even though the proposals have been approved, we need an approval of National Company Law Tribunal," Manoj Mohanka, newly appointed director, who is also a media and management expert, said.
There are chances that other creditors like Indiabulls Finance and also ICICI Bank, which had earlier challenged the legality of Srei being a shareholder, may put a spanner in Srei's recovery plans by approaching the court.
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