DIBRUGARH, Oct 13 - A new five- member Board of Directors has taken charge of the the country�s oldest tea company, Assam Company India Limited (ACIL).
The new Board was announced on October 9 with Dr BR Shetty as the chairman. The Board has four other directors. ACIL, with 14 tea gardens, 18,000 staff and an annual tea production of about 12 million kilos, had run into debts of more than Rs 1,800 crore, requiring financial restructuring of the company.
The company�s debts were forwarded to a Resolution Professional by the Guwahati Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). It was decided that the company would be handed to an investor who would infuse funds to help revive ACIL.
After a global lookout for prospective investors, the Abu Dhabi�based BRS Ventures Investment Limited came to the rescue of the world�s oldest tea company, with an upfront investment and a sustained business plan. After several rounds of negotiations, Shetty�s company will pay Rs 1,214 crore to ACIL to erase its restructured loans and liabilities.
The liabilities include PF dues to the workers, which will now be cleared in tranches. Eighty per cent of the bank loans and 60 per cent of unsecured loans would be immediately serviced, as per the financial resolution
formula.
Speaking to this Correspondent, Shetty said he wants to be a part of the State�s development story. He said ACIL will be revived and that he has been overawed by the hospitality of
Assam.
Now that ACIL has a new Board in place, the next move at the top management would be the appointment of a Managing Director. While Shetty is the chairman, the other directors of ACIL since October 9 are Dr (Smt) CR Shetty, Binay Raghuram Shetty, Prajit Vasudevan and Dibrugarh�s local chartered accountant and tax consultant Sanjay Jain.
