BCCI claims Byju's has defaulted payment of Rs 158 crore

Byju's

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on December 4 claimed that embattled edtech firm Byju’s has defaulted payment of Rs 158 crore, as indicated by information on the National Company Law Tribunal website.

“It is stated that the General notice was issued to BYJU’s vide email dated 06.01.2023 and the default amount of Rs.158 crore. excluding TDS as reflected,” the NCLT website showed.

The NCLT has granted a period of two weeks to Byju’s to file reply in the case and another week thereafter to BCCI to file rejoinder.

Moneycontrol earlier reported that while the case was filed on September 8, it was officially registered only on November 15. The case between the BCCI and the parent company of Byju’s, Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, which was last scheduled for a hearing on November 28, will have another hearing on December 22.

Byju's previously had three significant branding partnerships with the BCCI, ICC (International Cricket Council), and FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association), all of which were up for renewal in 2023. However, the company confirmed earlier in the year that it would not renew any of them. It remains undisclosed whether the filed suit is related to this matter or another issue.

Byju’s story so far

This development also follows fresh troubles for Byju's as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) confirmed sending a show cause notice to edtech company Think and Learn Private Limited and Byju Raveendran in the FEMA violation case.

The company has come under fire for delaying full and final settlements of laid-off employees yet again. The Bengaluru-based company had earlier shifted the date of payment from September to November.

Recently, the company overcame a longstanding issue with Davidson Kempner, linked with covenants on Byju’s’ subsidiary Aakash. Earlier in November, Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai bought out the debt investment by the US Hedge Fund, in a Rs 1,400-crore deal, Moneycontrol reported.

Meanwhile in September, Byju's also submitted a proposal to its lenders, in which the company expressed its intention to fully repay its $1.2 billion term loan B within the upcoming six months. Byju's aims to achieve this by making an initial payment of $300 million within the next three months.

As part of its efforts to secure the necessary funds for loan repayment, the company has also decided to undertake a strategic review of its key assets.

For this, Byju’s has put upskilling platform Great Learning and book reading platform Epic, up for sale, which would yield the company about $1 billion, Moneycontrol reported.

Byju’s, founded over a decade back by former teacher Raveendran, had soared to new heights in March 2022 after it raised a massive $800 million funding round, at a $22 billion valuation, becoming India’s most-valued startup.

But the company has come under fire since then for a host of issues including delayed financial results, the resignation of its auditor, Deloitte, and three key board members–Peak XV Partners (Sequoia Capital India)’s GV Ravishankar, Prosus’ Russel Dreisenstock and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Vivian Wu.