IL&FS' lenders approve sale of its education business

Crisis-ridden IL&FS Group on Tuesday said that it has received the approval of its Committee of Creditors (CoC) to sell its education business Schoolnet India Ltd (erstwhile IL&FS Education and Technology Service Ltd) to Career Point Publications Private Ltd (CPPPL).

The financial bid of CPPPL was approved by more than 78 per cent of IL&FS Ltd's creditors through an e-voting process that concluded on November 5, 2019, IL&FS said in a statement, adding that the process was under the resolution framework for IL&FS Group submitted to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

The CoC represents all the financial creditors to IL&FS Ltd, the holding company for the IL&FS Group, as per the statement.

"CPPPL made a binding offer, at an implied enterprise value, whereby it shall assume responsibility for all the debt of Schoolnet India Limited (SIL) and IL&FS Skills Development Corporation Limited (ISDC), in addition to paying a certain amount towards purchase of SI''s equity. As part of this transaction, CPPPL will also get ownership of 80 per cent stake in IL&FS Skills Development Corporation (ISDC) held by SIL," it said.

IL&FS Group currently holds 73.70 per cent stake in Schoolnet India Limited (SIL), and Schoolnet India Limited holds 80 per cent stake in IL&FS Skill Development Corp (ISDC) and also has two subsidiaries IL&FS Cluster Development Initiative Ltd (ICDI) and Skill Training Assessment Management Partners Limited (STAMP).

CPPPL has also made a binding offer to purchase the businesses, including certain business debt of two other subsidiaries of SIL IL&FS Cluster Development Initiative Ltd (ICDI) and Skill Training Assessment Management Partners Ltd (STAMP) for an additional consideration.

The board of IL&FS Ltd approved the sale in its meeting held on November 7, 2019, and under the resolution framework, it will next seek the approval of retired Justice D.K. Jain.

If the transaction goes through it would be a major development in the resolution process after the IL&FS completed the sale of its wind energy assets to Orix Corporation of Japan in October last.

( With inputs from IANS )