Dubai: Indira Ramachandran, wife of the beleaguered founder-chairman of Atlas Jewellery Group, has sought time to repay loans owed to several banks, requesting them to desist from taking further legal action, Gulf News has learnt.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the wife of M.M. Ramachandran, assured bankers that her husband would settle the debt, believed to be around Dh550 million.
Accompanied by management consultants hired by the Atlas group to resolve the issue, Indira attended the steering committee meeting convened by more than 15 banks involved in the financial impasse.
Indira assured the bank representatives that the outstanding amount would be settled after a proper valuation of the group’s assets when she would be in a position to structure the terms of payback, a banker who attended the meeting told Gulf News.
Indira also told the representatives that the health of 73-year-old Ramachandran was “fragile and deteriorating” due to stress.
Dubai Police earlier this week announced his arrest in connection with bounced cheques. Five different cases have been filed in various police stations.
Indira asked the banks not to “aggravate” the issue as her organisation had every intention to resolve the deadlock.
Industry sources, meanwhile, said many banks were not very happy with the outcome of the meeting as it offered no definite solutions in a particular timeframe.
“Many banks involved in this are looking for a quick settlement and exit while many others are looking to restructure and refinance the debt. In either case, the banks wanted to immediately have the hospital in Oman and other stronger assets under their lien as a precondition to be able to work out the payment plan. However, this did not happen. No clear cut solution was a dampener as no date for the next meeting was fixed making the time frame and terms of pay back very fluid,” the source pointed out, referring to his health care business.
The group is believed to owe an aggregate amount of Dh550 millon to the banks. The alarm was raised when the group defaulted on interest payments over a sustained period of time. Despite several reminders and alerts, when Ramachandran switched off his phone more than a fortnight ago, some banks presented security cheques. When these cheques were returned due to insufficient funds in the company’s account, banks moved to register a police complaint and get a travel ban imposed on Ramachandran. He was arrested on August 27.
