Amrapali, from real estate giant to company struggling to pay its dues
Once ranked among the country’s biggest real estate giants, the Amrapali Group is today struggling to pay its dues. The Supreme Court directed the Debt Recovery Tribunal to sell the unencumbered commercial properties of the real estate firm. The proceeds, the court ruled, would go to the government-run National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) that would take over and complete Amrapali’s stalled projects. At its peak in 2015, the Amrapali real estate group claimed to have had around 50 projects spread across 24 cities. Its real estate portfolio included the residential Amrapali Sapphire and Amrapali Platinum in Noida, the Amrapali Empire in Ghaziabad, a commercial hub in Greater Noida, a township in Jaipur, a multiplex mall in Bihar and an IT hub-cum-five star hotel. Now, however, it seems the group’s grandeur was just on paper. According to the balance sheet, the group’s tangible assets went up from around Rs 30.4 crore (304,274,099) in 2011 to around Rs 299 crore (2,991,156,994) in 2015. The firm, though, listed as ‘nil’ the number of properties produced between 2011 and 2015, which means that there were no property projects completed in that period. There was also an insignificant increase in the inventories through these years, indicating that the asset generation could have been only in terms of land. Its long-term loans and advances in 2015 stood at around Rs 218 crore (2,180,798,227), which were funded by long-term borrowing from banks and equity inclusions. At present, more than 2,500 homebuyers have taken the group to the Supreme Court. a Supreme Court bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U.U. Lalit, hearing the plea, warned the directors of Amrapali group that it would sell their properties if the group continued to delay its projects. “The real problem is that you have delayed giving possession of homes. Don’t try to play smart or we will sell each and every property of yours and render you homeless,” the bench said. “You (directors) will have to look for your houses like you are making others wait for their homes. We will sell each and everything of yours.”
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