Within days of superseding the board and appointing an administrator, the Reserve Bank of India has filed an insolvency petition against the troubled housing finance firm Aviom India Housing Finance at the New Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The apex bank has also appointed a three-member panel of experts to advice the administrator of the firm.
The RBI had on Monday superseded the management and board of the Delhi Aerocity-based Aviom, and appointed Ram Kumar, an ex-chief general manager of Punjab National Bank as the administrator. The banking regulator cited serious governance lapses and many payment defaults on the sided of the housing finance company.
In two separate actions on Thursday, the RBI field an application for initiating corporate insolvency resolution process against Aviom under Sections 227 and 239 of the IBC 2016 with the New Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal. Under the extant IBC rules an interim moratorium has also been imposed on the company today, which will be effective till its admission or rejection, the central bank said in a statement.
Accordingly, interim moratorium includes transferring, encumbering, alienating or disposing off by the corporate debtor any of its assets or any legal right or beneficial interest therein; any action to foreclose, recover or enforce any security interest created by the corporate debtor in respect of its property; and the recovery of any property by an owner or lessor where such property is occupied by or in the possession of the corporate debtor among others.
In another development, the RBI has appointed a three-member advisory committee consisting of Paritosh Tripathi, an ex-chief general manager of SBI; Rajneesh Sharma, ex-chief general manager of Bank of Baroda and Sanjaya Gupta, ex-chief executive of PNB Housing Finance. The panel will advise the administrator Ram Kumar, the central bank said.
Aviom, which, before the RBI action, was led by Kaajal Aijaz Ilmi as the managing director, is into financing low-income households in semi-urban areas. According to its website, it offers loans to individuals for home improvements, renovations, and sanitation apart from financing women who don’t have any formal income documentation.
In FY24 its loan book stood at Rs 416 crore, which almost doubled from FY23 when it was only Rs 241 crore and its net income stood at Rs 42 crore and Rs 36 crore in these years.