Who is Deepak Kochhar - the link between ICICI Bank and Videocon?

Deepak Kochhar the Founder & CEO of the NuPower Group, has 20 years of entrepreneurial experience in the financial services & renewable energy sector.

Deepak Kochhar Founder & CEO of NuPower Renewables. Photo: Official Website

Deepak Kochhar is the main person linked in the battle between ICICI Bank and their loan of Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon Group. Controversy that erupted is over Chanda Kochhar the CEO & MD of largest private-lender having made personal gains in regards to loan given to Videocon in which her husband Deepak Kochhar's name has cropped up.

Deepak Kochhar the Founder & CEO of the NuPower Group, has 20 years of entrepreneurial experience in the financial services & renewable energy sector.

NuPower, one of the leading Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the renewable energy sector, has nearly 700 MW of renewable energy assets operating and in pipeline located across Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh.

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Amongst its operating wind power assets, NuPower has manufactured 2.05 MW wind turbines with German technology from Wind to Energy GmbH (W2E) and built these projects from end to end on a self development basis.

He has a Master’s Degree in Finance from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Bombay University. He is also an Alumnus of Harvard Business School – Graduate of the Advanced Management Program (AMP).

Deepak is also a keen Squash player, and has won 3 National Squash titles.

In March 2012, as per the letter of Arvind Gupta an ICICI Bank shareholder, it was known that, NuPower allotted 18,97,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each, aggregating Rs 1.89 crore to Deepak Kochhar and 1,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each to Sunil Bhuta (the CFO of NuPower Group).

As a result of this allotment, Deepak Kochhar acquired substantial stake of 92.67% of diluted equity share capital in NuPower and the Supreme Energy got reduced to minority holding of 2.32% and the rest is held by their employees.

It is pertinent to note, while the Dhoot of Videocon invested Rs 64 crore through the Related Party in NuPower, its shareholding in NuPower got reduced to just 2.32%, whereas just with the investments of only Rs 1.89 crore Deepak Kochhar acquired 92.67 % stake in NuPower.

In August 2017, Videocon was highlighted by RBI among 28 companies which were identified as big defaulters in second list and needed for immediate resolution. Videocon and many other companies in the list were given December 13 deadline for laying out a plan in restructuring their debt, if failed then the matters would be sent to National Company Law Tribunal for Insolvency & Bankruptcy resolution. This led to State Bank of India (SBI) initiating bankruptcy proceedings against Videocon in January, as the latter owes Rs 29,000 crore to the consortium lenders; of which SBI had extended Rs 3,900 crore.

Videocon, therefore, is the largest defaulter in the RBI’s second list. The consulting firm KPMG acts as Videocon’s resolution professional. At present, Videocon has market capitalization of Rs 415.40 crore, and has a pile of over Rs 45,000 crore loan.

ICICI Bank’s exposure in Videocon Group is less than 10%, while around 90% of the loans were sanctioned by other banks and financial institution.

Click here to avail the entire letter written by Arvind Gupta.

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