“When we regain control, we will pay their salaries on time, even if it means running up more personal debt. This is not just a promise, it is a commitment. We have investors ready to back our turnaround story,” said Byju Raveendran.
On August 14, the Supreme Court stayed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order that approved the settlement agreement between Think & Learn Pvt LtdByju’s parent company, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The order came following an appeal filed by US lender GLAS Trust Co LLC, which represented lenders owed $1.2 billion. The lenders challenged the deal between the edtech firm and BCCI, alleging that funds paid by Byju Raveendran’s brother Riju Ravindran were tainted.
According to Byju Raveendran, the Supreme Court has temporarily stayed the NCLAT decision and therefore control over the company’s accounts has not yet been restored. This has prevented the founders from injecting more capital to pay salaries, as they have been doing for the past few months.
The apex court also asked the cricket board to keep the Rs 158 crore obtained in the deal in a separate escrow account. The court will hear the matter again on August 23.
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Over the past 29 months, the company’s only source of capital was the founders, who contributed around Rs 7,500 crore for operations. Of the Rs 3,976 crore paid in salaries over two years, Riju personally contributed Rs 1,600 crore, Byju Raveendran said. On August 1, ET reported that Riju Ravindran’s lawyer told the bankruptcy appeal court who was using his personal funds to settle the company’s payment arrears to BCCI. These funds were raised through the sale of shares in Byju’s parent company, Think & Learn, between May 2015 and January 2022.
None of the money came from the term loan the company had obtained from U.S. lenders who opposed the settlement agreement with BCCI, its lawyer said.
“These are not the original lenders who gave us TLB $1.2 billion for expansion, which was to be repaid by November 2026. These aggressive foreign emergency funds created enough noise, bought these bonds at a fraction of the original value, illegally accelerated the loan and asked us to repay them in full within 16 months of loan disbursement,” Byju Raveendran said.
Byju Raveendran said the company is close to ending the negative economic cycle and is showing signs of recovery. “We are ready to launch Byju 3.0, a low-cost, high-impact AI-powered hyper-personalized education platform,” he added.
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