India court allows Byju’s US lenders to join creditor panel

An Indian companies’ court allowed US lenders of Byju’s to rejoin a key creditor committee, in another setback for the once-celebrated online tutor.

The National Company Law Tribunal Wednesday said Glas Trust Company could again join Byju’s creditors panel that’s tasked with a reorganization or eventual liquidation of the firm as part of the country’s insolvency resolution process. It also allowed Aditya Birla Finance, another creditor, to be included in the committee.

The court’s order effectively removes the current bankruptcy administrator, who is typically in-charge of running the company. Pankaj Srivastava, who held the post until the NCLT order Wednesday, previously included and then left Glas Trust out of the creditors’ committee as the lender was also involved in a similar case in a US court.

Former school teacher Byju Raveendran’s eponymous firm is near the end of a high-profile existence during which it surged to a $22 billion valuation. Started in 2015, Byju’s, formally Think & Learn Pvt., quickly gained fans and then saw its business boom during the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting Raveendran to expand abroad. But as infections subsided and classrooms resumed, its cash pile shrank and the company ran into legal problems in the US as well as its domestic market.

While Byju’s could still emerge from insolvency, its operations have been severely disrupted. It’s cut thousands of jobs and stopped accepting new students and offering new online courses. Raveendran late last year said the firm was valued at zero, and large investors including Prosus NV have written off their investments in the company.