IFCI takesover Kouton chief’s Haveli Hospitality

After defaulting on payments to IFCI, the finance company

has taken over a motel complex – Haveli Hospitality on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway that founder-chairman DPS Kohli had mortgaged as collateral while raising working capital for Koutons. IFCI’s associate firm Hardicon is now running the complex. Located at Karnal, Haveli is popular among tourists for its 22-room hotel, restaurants, banquet halls and an amusement park.

In a separate development, Koutons told the Bombay Stock Exchange that IFCI has invoked almost 0.6 per cent of shares held by founder Kohli. In April 2011, in a similar fashion IFCI had invoked shares pledged by the promoters taking the finance company’s share in Koutons to 10.24 per cent. Kohli, along with other promoters had pledged almost 98 per cent of their holding in the company to the lenders in December 2010. With debt and inventory piling up after the global recession in 2008-09, Koutons is still finding it difficult to stay afloat, like many other retailers. After continuously failing to pay dues, Koutons the most sought after retailer, is facing several winding-up petitions. When it debuted on the BSE stock exchange in July 2007, the Koutons scrip had soared 25 per cent over issue price to close at Rs 590. Today the stock has lost almost 97 per cent of its value and is trading at Rs 16.55.

While small players could not sustain operations post-2008 recession, even big giants like the Future Group are reeling under high debt and inventory pressure and are awaiting FDI approval to carry out expansion and sustain operations.