Haier, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs may bid for Videocon’s electronics business; deal valued at $2bn

The investment firms may, however, consider teaming up with local business houses prior to placing binding bids, sources told the paper, adding that the final tally of suitors would be known after expressions of interests (EoI) are received in the first week of October.

Read: Bids invited for debt-ridden Videocon under insolvency resolution process

The firm's electronics business, which has sales of Rs 10,000-12,000 crore is distributed between as many as 15 legal entities of the Videocon Group. According to the report, suitors may be expected to put together a single resolution plan for all 15 entities, subject to relevant approvals from the courts.

Lenders are considering running a co-ordinated auction process for the sale of all the units by appointing a common adviser. This may help banks ensure that the timeline for circulation of proposals to prospective buyers and the receipt of final bids and resolution plans remain the same for all entities on the block.

The corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of Videocon Industries, which has a debt of around Rs 20,000 crore, was commenced under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) following an order by the NCLT Mumbai on June 6. State Bank of India (SBI) had filed separate insolvency proceedings against Videocon Industries and Videocon Telecommunications.

In its heydays, Videocon was known for its consumer durables business. It then diversified into oil and gas, direct-to-home and telecom sectors, with the latter two ventures proving to be unsuccessful.

The company then sold its DTH business to Dish TV and telecom business to Airtel.

The Videocon Group is under investigation for alleged quid-pro-quo over Rs 3,250 crore loan by ICICI bank to it in 2012. The bank had also ordered an independent probe into allegations of 'conflict of interest' and 'quid pro quo' in bank's MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar's role.